At the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris

In 1946  Zadkine was appointed to direct sculpture classes at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, located in Montparnasse, in the Rue de la Grande-Chaumière. His course was a resounding success. He taught there until 1958. "My class at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière is a meeting point for international youth who are investigating the new world of forms. I had almost 30 pupils to begin with and at each critical conference which I hold on Fridays between 10 am and 12 pm, there is a horde of foreign nationals who come to hear what I have to say. These young people are very heart-warming, but I leave as tired as if I'd just gone down with a cold, he wrote in 1950 to his friend André de Ridder.

Amongst his foreign students who became well-known sculptors, the following are worthy of mention: Alicia Penalba who came from Argentina, Manuel Felguérez from Mexico, Dietrich-Mohr from Germany, Richard Stankiewicz from the United States and Marta Colvin from Chile. The latter paid homage to Zadkine by publishing his 1949-1950 courses:  “n° 10 Rue de la Grande-Chaumière, Ossip Zadkine’s studio, a Thursday. Even before entering, you can hear his voice. Ardent and firm, it is that of a master who possesses certainty and communicates it with faith, fervour and fire".

Another of his students Gaston Louis-Marchal, who later became one of his close friends, published a "transcription" of his teaching during the year 1953. To his pupils working from a living model, Zadkine dispensed his advice: "In front of nature, look constantly, study incessantly – but know how to choose as - in any case you can't see everything, and on the other hand you mustn't keep everything".