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:
- John Cage
- Alexander Calder
- Isamu Noguchi
- Man Ray
- Edgard Soares
- Marcel Duchamp (also: a carved knight from his Buenos Aires set)
- Max Ernst (don't forget his awesome chess-themed sculpture)
- Damien Hirst (close-ups: king, knight)
- Yayoi Kusama (close up, but more importantly, further out)
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.
