Ossip Zadkine with 'The Destroyed City'

© National Portrait Gallery, London

 Like voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

Please Like other favourites!
If they inspire you please support our work.

Buy a print Buy a greetings card Make a donation Close

Ossip Zadkine with 'The Destroyed City'

by Ida Kar
vintage bromide print, 1954
Purchased, 1999
Photographs Collection
NPG Ax134317

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Ida Kar (1908-1974), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 1567 portraits, Sitter in 137 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Freestone, Clare (appreciation) Wright, Karen (appreciation), Ida Kar Bohemian Photographer, 2011 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 10 March to 19 June 2011), p. 87 Read entry

    Russian-born to a Scottish mother, Zadkine first visited England in 1905. He later returned to study sculpture at London's Regent Street Polytechnic and at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, before settling in Paris in 1909. He practised direct carving in wood and stone and made simplified figures, influenced by Romanesque art and, later, by cubism. Kar photographed Zadkine in his Parisian studio, 100 bis rue d'Assas (now the Musée Zadkine), next to one of his best-known works, The Destroyed City (1948-51), a memorial to the 1940 bombing of Rotterdam by the Germans. During the 1940s Zadkine experimented by perforating the scuIptures with apertures. He was awarded the grand prize for scuIpture at the Venice Biennale (1950).

Placesback to top

  • Place made and portrayed: France (sitter's studio, 100 bis rue d'Assas, Paris, France)

Subject/Themeback to top

Events of 1954back to top

Current affairs

Roger Bannister runs the four-minute mile. Bannister was the first man to achieve the 'miracle mile', a feat that was thought by some to be impossible, beating his rival, the Australian John Landy, to the record. Bannister went on to a career as a distinguished neurologist.
Food rationing ends in Britain.

Art and science

J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the first two parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Tolkien was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon language and literature and drew on his scholarly interests in history, language and mythology to create the fictional land of Middle Earth where the books are set.
Williams Golding publishes, Lord of the Flies.

International

The South East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) is established in Bangkok. This international defence organisation was established as part of the 'containment' policy of limiting the influence of communism. SEATO was, however, found to be ineffective as the member organisations failed to agree on combined action; it was disbanded in 1977.

Comments back to top

We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.

If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.