Torso 1963

Ossip Zadkine carved this "Torso" out of wood; but when, exactly, remains a mystery. You know, when you look at a piece like this, it’s like seeing a body emerge from the darkness. The wood itself has this beautiful, deep grain, polished smooth but still holding onto its natural texture. The way the light catches those curves... that’s where the magic is. There’s this one spot, right above the legs where the carving is deeper. It makes the form almost abstract, which leads the eye and lets your mind fill in the blanks. This feels related to Brancusi's sleekness or even some of Henry Moore’s rounded forms, but with a roughness. Zadkine’s not trying to hide the process, he's using it. The piece has a real sensitivity, a sense of touch, of human presence in an inanimate object. And that tension, that push and pull, is what makes it so compelling.