Ossip Zadkine

La Danse [The Dance]

About this artwork

Zadkine was a music-lover and made a series of sculptures of musicians. However this sculpture shows instead the effects of music, with the enraptured expressions on the faces of the two dancers suggesting that they have been transported into the world of music. The arms and draperies of the figures are rhythmically curved and the mirroring of their poses suggests harmony and balance. Curves appeared in Zadkine’s sculptures as he moved away from earlier Cubist influences. However he has used some Cubist-like planes here and has also employed the Cubist device of inverting negative and positive spaces. For example, the arm of the male figure is a scooped out and the tips of his fingers are drawn into the neck of his partner.

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
    Ossip Zadkine (1888 - 1967) French
  • title:
    La Danse [The Dance]
  • date created:
    1927
  • materials:
    Bronze (2/3)
  • measurements:
    59.00 x 19.00 x 19.00 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Presented by Miss Elizabeth Watt 1960
  • accession number:
    GMA 769
  • gallery:
  • subject:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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Ossip Zadkine

Ossip Zadkine