Send an ecard of this image

Poker Faces Win Big

Today is National Card Playing Day, a time to indulge in those traditional games of luck and skill.

Charles Shaw's Montage seems perfectly "suited" to today's wacky observance. Throughout his career as an artist, Shaw made montages of antique playing and tarot cards, game boards, and other paraphernalia associated with games. Reflecting his study of the history of cards and games, Shaw mounted cards on old textiles in symmetrical and asymmetrical designs.

These montages were personal works for Shaw. He never exhibited them, although they were installed from floor to ceiling throughout his apartment. Indeed, the enigmatic quality of the cards provides an intriguing twist in the study of Shaw's art and contributes additional clues to his multifaceted character.

Source: Virginia M. Mecklenburg. The Patricia and Phillip Frost Collection: American Abstraction 1930–1945 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1989).

Pictured: Charles Shaw, 1892–1974, Montage, about 1935–1950, paper playing cards, mother of pearl jetons, and wood snuff box mounted on silk, 14 3/4 x 12 3/4 x 2 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Patricia and Phillip Frost.