Phoenix, 1944

Ossip Zadkine (Belarus, 1890-1967)
Sonsbeek ’52, City Hall, Arnhem

An abstract-looking bronze statue nearly two meters high stands on a square black pedestal about fifty centimeters tall. The sculpture contains recognizable elements of a bird: two outstretched wings, large protruding feathers, and at the top a bird’s head with an open beak pointing upward. It is as if the bird is calling for help. The statue stands right next to a grey marble wall. — *Photographer: unknown (Wikimedia commons)*

In the Netherlands, Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967) is best known for the war monument De Verwoeste Stad (The Destroyed City) in Rotterdam. A smaller version of that monument was already shown during the first Sonsbeek exhibition in 1949. During Sonsbeek 1952, Zadkine presented Phoenix (1944), a work thematically connected to his earlier monument, linked to the traumas of World War II.

The sculpture depicts a phoenix, the mythological bird that rises repeatedly from its own ashes. Zadkine seems to capture the moment of flame and rebirth. For the municipality of Arnhem, the phoenix symbolizes the city’s reconstruction after the war. In 1955, Phoenix was acquired by the municipality, and since 1968 the sculpture has stood next to the light marble walls of the city hall.

Zadkine was born in Belarus and worked in Paris from 1910 until his death. His early work shows Cubist influences, a popular style in Paris from the 1910s. In the 1920s, he developed his own abstract sculptural language—less rigid and more dynamic—which is clearly visible in Phoenix.

Phoenix, 1944

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