Press releases

VITEBSK, 9 July (BelTA) – Ossip Zadkine’s sculpture The Return of the Prodigal Son that has been presented at the Slavianski Bazaar Festival will stay in Vitebsk afterwards, curator of the Belgazprombank Corporate Collection Alexander Zimenko told reporters answering a question of a BelTA correspondent.

He told journalists that the sculpture The Return of the Prodigal Son cast in 1962 was purchased for the Belgazprombank Corporate Collection at Christie’s auction in 2016 and was not displayed up till now. It was unveiled to the public as the centerpiece of the cultural project Ossip Zadkine. Homecoming that opened in Vitebsk on 9 July.

“After the exhibition closes, the sculpture will stay in Vitebsk. We are in talks with local authorities over possible ways to integrate it into the city’s cultural setting,” Alexander Zimenko said.

The exhibition of Ossip Zadkine’s works at the museum of the Vitebsk people's art school is the first project on the packed cultural program of the Slavianski Bazaar Festival. The exhibition also includes the sculpture Petite Pieta (bronze, 1961) and two paintings: Lake and Three Nudes at a Table from different periods of the artist's art.

Alexander Sidorenko, the director of the International Festival of Arts Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk, director of the Vitebsk culture center, highlighted the importance of the project as an example of fruitful public-private partnership.

A Vitebsk native, Ossip Zadkine is one of the most outstanding representatives of the avant-garde art movement of the 20th century. The sculpture The Return of the Prodigal Son was inspired not only by the well-known biblical parable but is based on his personal experience. In 1906, he broke up with his family and settled in London alone. But after a few years he came back to his homeland to reconcile with his father.