The fight 1938

Ossip Zadkine made this painting called ‘The Fight’ with oil paint. What I love is how the fighters are built up from planes of muted colour, like grey and ochre and touches of blue in the sky—it feels almost sculptural. I imagine Zadkine wrestling with these forms, building them up and knocking them down, trying to find the balance between representation and abstraction. You can almost feel the energy of the struggle, the tension in their muscles, the way their bodies twist and turn. And the repetition of figures! That ghostly afterimage of movement. Like Cubism, like Picasso, like everyone in Paris at the time. You can feel Zadkine pushing against the boundaries of what painting could be. Artists are always building on each other's ideas, riffing on the past, and discovering new ways to express themselves. It’s what makes painting so exciting.