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Lot Essay
Until 1924 Zadkine was in essence an investigating sculptor, his works from before that date reminds of Archipenko, Lipchitz, Picasso and even of the Futurists. The basis of his initial drive was rather a novel and expressive carving of wood and innate feeling for the nature of wood and stone.
A.M. Hammacher states that 'It was in 1924 or thereabouts, when his work was already formed and mature, that Zadkine went more deeply into the problem the Cubists had set, first for painting, than for sculpture. (...) the Zadkine whose style unfolded in accordance with his own nature was not the Zadkine of earlier years (...); the new Zadkine handled the forms and proportions of the body more freely, with an Expressionism that was not longer Latin, but was not German or Flemish either. The figures of mythical women rising out of the material and in the simple heads built up out of large surfaces, there is enough myth to give the figures airiness, the free flight of the poetic soul, but not enough to destroy belief in reality. Around 1924 Zadkine successfully adopted the convex-concave principle that had come to the fore in the sculpture of the Cubists, a principle that had not been unknown to him but which he had not really yet applied. He did not handle it in a doctrinairy way; he used the principle more pictorially than Lipchitz. His work was more lyrical and had an element of the epic-that was completely in keeping with his personality. (...) The figurative in Zadkine remains basic; the enclosed volume is all important. Concavity is used with moderation, and it never affects the volume essentially'. (A.M. Hammacher, The Evolution of Modern Sculpture, New York 1969, p. 151-152)
Referring to the almost decorative elements also apparent in for instance Jeune fille à la Colombe, Hammacher continues by saying that Zadkine 'likes to associate volume with the graphic by incising on the surface a hand, a flower, or, in the manner of the Sumerians, a poem. From time to time, preoccupied with the interpenetration of surfaces, the convex and concave, and the transparent - all of which elements derive from Cubism- he also makes Baroque figurative constructions with a relief character corresponding to emotional nature, which in later years manifests itself in a dramatic, sometimes stormy, expression.'
Jeune fille à la Colombe is regarded as one of Zadkines best scupltures from this period, because it unites all his famous characteristics succesfully: a lively sculpture, rich, full of details and decorative elements, flowing curves and the human, almost poetical side of the artist come together in this superb sculpture.
Another unsigned cast can be found in the Petit Palais, Geneva (collection Oscar Ghez)
We kindly thank Mr Tjerk Wiegersma for his kind help in cataloguing this lot
A.M. Hammacher states that 'It was in 1924 or thereabouts, when his work was already formed and mature, that Zadkine went more deeply into the problem the Cubists had set, first for painting, than for sculpture. (...) the Zadkine whose style unfolded in accordance with his own nature was not the Zadkine of earlier years (...); the new Zadkine handled the forms and proportions of the body more freely, with an Expressionism that was not longer Latin, but was not German or Flemish either. The figures of mythical women rising out of the material and in the simple heads built up out of large surfaces, there is enough myth to give the figures airiness, the free flight of the poetic soul, but not enough to destroy belief in reality. Around 1924 Zadkine successfully adopted the convex-concave principle that had come to the fore in the sculpture of the Cubists, a principle that had not been unknown to him but which he had not really yet applied. He did not handle it in a doctrinairy way; he used the principle more pictorially than Lipchitz. His work was more lyrical and had an element of the epic-that was completely in keeping with his personality. (...) The figurative in Zadkine remains basic; the enclosed volume is all important. Concavity is used with moderation, and it never affects the volume essentially'. (A.M. Hammacher, The Evolution of Modern Sculpture, New York 1969, p. 151-152)
Referring to the almost decorative elements also apparent in for instance Jeune fille à la Colombe, Hammacher continues by saying that Zadkine 'likes to associate volume with the graphic by incising on the surface a hand, a flower, or, in the manner of the Sumerians, a poem. From time to time, preoccupied with the interpenetration of surfaces, the convex and concave, and the transparent - all of which elements derive from Cubism- he also makes Baroque figurative constructions with a relief character corresponding to emotional nature, which in later years manifests itself in a dramatic, sometimes stormy, expression.'
Jeune fille à la Colombe is regarded as one of Zadkines best scupltures from this period, because it unites all his famous characteristics succesfully: a lively sculpture, rich, full of details and decorative elements, flowing curves and the human, almost poetical side of the artist come together in this superb sculpture.
Another unsigned cast can be found in the Petit Palais, Geneva (collection Oscar Ghez)
We kindly thank Mr Tjerk Wiegersma for his kind help in cataloguing this lot