Are You Game?
Today in 1933, Monopoly—one of America's favorite games—was invented.
Are You Game?
Today in 1933, Monopoly—one of America's favorite games—was invented.
All sorts of game pieces, perhaps even Monopoly tokens, are used in this stunning artwork from the Renwick Gallery entitled Game Fish, by artist Larry Fuente.
Larry Fuente is a California artist who transforms banal, commercial products into objects of wonder and mystery. . . . Using a mounted sailfish trophy, Fuente created a flamboyant work that is itself a punning play on words, for the actual "game fish" is covered with a wide variety of commercial, game-related artifacts—dice, miniature pinball games, poker chips, ping-pong balls, yo-yos, domino and Scrabble tiles—even badminton birdies. . . . The sheer excess of the thousands of colored ornaments that emphasize yet transform the underlying found object is the essence of Fuente's delightfully obsessive decorative aesthetic.
Pictured top: Larry Fuente (born 1947), Game Fish,1988, mixed media: wood, plastic, beads, buttons, poker chips, badminton birdies, ping pong balls, rhinestones, coins, dice, plastic figurines, combs, miniature pinball games, dominoes, chess pieces, pool balls, and other found objects , 51 1/2 x 112 1/2 x 10 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James Renwick Alliance and museum purchase through the Smithsonian Institution Collections Acquisition Program .
Source: National Museum of American Art (CD-ROM). (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996).
Pictured bottom: Larry Fuente, Game Fish (detail).