Zadkine'sPoet: ‘Ut poesis sculptura’

Abstract

Abstract Modern art theorists have postulated the aesthetic sufficiency of sculpture as an art of ‘pure’ forms, but contemporary artists sometimes combine sculpture not only with painting but also with verbal expressions. The parity of the media is the theme ofa reputable tradition going back to Horace's famous analogy of poetry to pictures (Ut pictura poesis) which was later interpreted as meaning that painting was a kind of poetry.1 Painters were said to be poets who express themselves in visible images, but this definition was seldom applied to sculptors. Statues could be described as mute theatre or perhaps petrified dance, and non-figurative works have been likened to architecture which in turn is sometimes compared to music, but the notion of concrete poetry had to await the liberation of sculpture from the demands of lifelike imitation. The ideology of sculptural poetry had especial relevance for Ossip Zadkine, a friend of poets who himself wrote verses. In his poems he often conveyed his messages ...