Acacia
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ossip-zadkine-2184" aria-label="More by Ossip Zadkine" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Ossip Zadkine</a>
Venus
Presented by F.H. Mayor as executor of the late Richard Wyndham 1954
abstraction
actions: postures and motions
adults
Aphrodite / Venus
arm / arms raised
classical myths: gods and heroes
female
figure
from recognisable sources
nudes
people
religion and belief
standing
woman
<p>A Russian émigré, Zadkine arrived in Paris in 1909 and became associated with Cubism. In the 1920s, he became interested in arts outside the academic canon, favouring the elongated forms of Romanesque statuary. He made large-scale wooden sculptures drawing on techniques of Russian folk decoration, and exemplifying the immediacy of ‘direct carving’. <span>Venus</span> embodies the impact of these varied sources, so that the classical ideal of beauty is invigorated by raw simplification.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
sculpture acacia
12 May 2000 – 15 March 2006
2006-03-15
12 May 2000 – 15 March 2006
2006-03-15
2000-05-12
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2000-05-12
The Myth of the Primitive
Collection based display
20 November 2008 – 1 April 2009
2009-04-01
20 November 2008 – 1 April 2009
2009-04-01
2008-11-20
Musée Zadkine (Paris, France)
2008-11-20
Ossip Zadkine
Loan-out
1 May 2009 – 3 July 2011
2011-07-03
2 May 2009 – 3 July 2011
2011-07-03
2009-05-02
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2009-05-01
Wayne Hemingway
Collection based display
Venus
object: 1918 × 533 × 464 mm, 98kg (Gross 209kg)
Presented by F.H. Mayor as executor of the late Richard Wyndham 1954
<p>A Russian émigré, Zadkine arrived in Paris in 1909 and became associated with <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cubism" title="Glossary definition for 'Cubism'"><span>Cubism</span></a>. In the 1920s, he became interested in arts outside the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academic-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Academic art'"><span>academic</span></a> canon, favouring the elongated forms of Romanesque statuary. He made large-scale wooden <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptures</span></a> drawing on techniques of Russian folk decoration, and exemplifying the immediacy of ‘<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/direct-carving" title="Glossary definition for 'Direct carving'"><span>direct carving</span></a>’. <i>Venus</i> embodies the impact of these varied sources, so that the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classical</span></a> ideal of beauty is invigorated by raw simplification.
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2004-09-09T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Ossip Zadkine</b><span> 1890-1967 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/zadkine-venus-n06226" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06226</span></a> </span><b>Vénus</b><span>
(Venus) </span><i>c.</i><span>1922-4 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'ZADKINE' on base</span>
<br/><span>Acacia, 75 3/4 x 21 x 18 1/4 (192.5 x 50.5 x 46.5)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by F.H. Mayor as Executor of the late Richard Wyndham 1954</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
Richard Wyndham, London (purchased from the artist through the Galerie Hodebert, Paris)</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>Zadkine</i><span>, Galerie Hodebert, Paris, February-March 1925 (no catalogue traced); </span><i>Gouache Drawings and Sculpture by Ossip Zadkine</i><span>, Arthur Tooth and Sons, London, November-December 1928 (11), dated 1925; </span><i>Zadkine</i><span>, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, January 1933 (42), dated 1923; </span><i>Works by Some Past Students of Chelsea and Polytechnic Schools of Art</i><span>, Chelsea School of Art, London, March-April 1965 (31), wrongly titled 'Eve'</span>
<br/><i>Lit:</i><span>
Ionel Jianou, </span><i>Zadkine</i><span>
(Paris 1964), p.82, repr. pl.94 (dated 1923)</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>L'Art Vivant</i><span>, No.43, 1 October 1926, p.742; Pierre Humbourg and Waldémar George, </span><i>Ossip Zadkine</i><span>
(Sélection, Antwerp 1928), p.29 (dated 1920); André de Ridder, </span><i>Zadkine</i><span>
(Paris 1929), pl.6 (dated 1925) </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The artist wrote on 2 October 1954 that 'Venus' was carved in an acacia tree in about 1920-1. Richard Wyndham who used to visit him in his workshop at Caylus (Tarn-et-Garonne), where he roughed out his wood carvings, saw it and expressed a wish to buy it. However, as it was still unfinished, Zadkine told him to wait until he saw it in its completed form in an exhibition. It was later shown in his first exhibition in Paris at the Galerie Barbazanges in, he thought, 1922-3, and Wyndham took it from the exhibition to England. He added: 'The "Venus" is most probably of 1922-23. It was one of the first works in which I reacted against <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cubism" title="Glossary definition for 'Cubism'"><span>cubism</span></a>'. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Not only does he suggest two different dates in his letter (1920-1 and 1922-3), but the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a> has been exhibited and reproduced with the dates 1920, 1923 and 1925. The exhibition referred to was most probably his one-man exhibition at the Galerie Hodebert (or Hodebert-Barbazanges) in February-March 1925. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.768-9, reproduced p.768 </span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction actions: postures and motions adults Aphrodite / Venus arm / arms raised classical myths: gods and heroes female figure from recognisable sources nudes people religion and belief standing woman