Game of Kings Artists

Media - 1967.136.4 - SAAM-1967.136.4_1 - 3042
Thomas Anshutz, Checker Players, ca. 1895, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Orrin Wickersham June, 1967.136.4
Kriston
November 30, 2005

You'll want to read Ben Davis's Artnet write-up of the Noguchi Museum's exhibition, "The Imagery of Chess Revisited," whether you're a chess player or not. For an artist like Marcel Duchamp—for any number of thinkers—chess represents a conceptual framework for the world. As a concept rooted in an object, chess serves as an excellent template for artists.

I mined Davis's list and added a few other modernist and contemporary takes on the chess set:

If you clicked through all those links and didn't find your favorite, be sure to leave a note in comments. If you followed those links and found a favorite, feel free to mention that, too.

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