Musicians 1946

Ossip Zadkine made this painting of musicians with what looks like gouache or watercolor, and maybe some ink. You can almost see the act of painting, right? How it probably emerged in layers, shifting as he went. I can see Zadkine here, lost in thought, maybe humming a tune, trying to make the space of music visible. There are these cubist angles, but the paint is quite fluid, so it's both structured and intuitive. Look at how the blue flattens the cellist into the same plane as his instrument, while the guitarist is more like a ghost. I love how Zadkine uses these washes of color to create volume and depth with such simple means. I can imagine him looking at Picasso and Braque, but then pushing it further into his own territory. It makes me want to pick up a brush and respond to his call. It’s all one big conversation, isn’t it?