Musician 1919

Ossip Zadkine made this sculpture of a Musician out of bronze, and it’s this greenish-brown colour, almost like ancient seaweed. What I like about this piece is how Zadkine lets you see the process. The surface is rough, and you can tell he really worked the material, like he’s wrestling with the form. It’s not smooth or polished; instead, it’s all about the texture, the marks, and the way the light catches those edges. Take a look at the musician's face, how it’s so simplified, just a few planes. That lack of detail forces you to fill in the blanks, to imagine the music, the feeling, the whole world that this figure is conjuring. It reminds me a bit of some of Picasso's cubist sculptures, where he's breaking things down to their essential forms. Zadkine lets the bronze speak, and in that rough surface, there's a lot of emotion. It’s a conversation between the artist and the material, and we’re lucky enough to eavesdrop.