Inspiration 1955

Ossip Zadkine made this artwork, Inspiration, with an intuitive approach that feels immediate and process-driven. He’s built the composition from expressive strokes and blocks of color, particularly the striking blues and yellows. What’s interesting here is the physicality of the medium, it really feels like you’re looking at a world shaped by paint. Take the table, for example. It’s rendered with such bold, graphic marks it almost reads as a separate painting within the larger composition. The paint is opaque, and you can see how Zadkine loaded the brush, each stroke confident and direct, like a sculptor chiseling away at stone. This piece reminds me of work by someone like Marsden Hartley, who had a similar way of using paint as a tool for emotional and spiritual expression, suggesting that art is always in conversation with itself across time and between artists. It's this ongoing dialogue, where meaning isn't fixed but constantly evolving.