The main focus of my Chess interest lies in the 19th
century. While there's more than enough there to keep me busy the rest of my
life, occasionally I peek into the 20th century for a bit of
diversity. One of the problems with the 20th century is that with so much
happening in so many places, it gets overwhelming and seeing it as a whole is
virtually impossible. Rather than tilting at windmills, when I do explore the
20th century, it's generally on very specific topics. Even these very specific
topics tend to be quite complex.
When I was assisting
Lawrence
Totaro in presenting documentations of Chess references for various
literary, artistic and cultural icons, one of which was
John Cage,
I was reminded of someone whom I consider possibly the most fascinating figure
in 20th century Chess - Henri Robert Marcel Duchamp. Although
the highest level Duchamp ever reached was to almost become the French
champion, he effectively neglected his art career in favor of Chess. I'm not an
student of art history and I don't claim to understand anything about Duchamp's
art, or the art produced by the Dadaists or Surrealists, but in exploring these
movements and the artists involved, I find myself affected, shocked or inspired
at times by their conceptions.
In researching John Cage, I came across, of course, the 1944 art
show called Imagery of Chess. Because of a 2003 art show called
Imagery of Chess Revisited, based upon the 1944 show, much had been written
about the original. I wasn't enthralled with the idea of replicating what has
already been documented - but I noticed that everything I read was,
individually, very limited in scope. I researched deeper and deeper still,
looking into the interconnections between the different artists, and their
relationships to Chess. It occurred to me that the 1944 show was in a sense an inevitable, yet absurd
culmination of this relationship between Chess and the avant-garde artists of
the first half of the 20th century. This existential connection - as
well as a more complete documentation of the Imagery of Chess - is the
basis of this article.
I limited myself to the
participants in the 1944-5 Imagery of Chess show although this omits some
obvious Surrealists, such as Salvador Dalí and René Magritte. And I'm not sure every
participant in the show could be strictly called a Surrealist. But the show did
feature many of the most prominent Surrealists of the time. There are several
things that seem to connect almost all these Surrealists. Things such as
sexuality, chess and Marcel Duchamp.
Marcel Duchamp
the
story
the
show
some acknowledgements:
Between Lives: An artist and Her World by
Dorothea Tanning. W. W. Norton & Company Publishers. 2001
Art Lover: A Biography of
Peggy Guggenheim by Anton Gill
Plaster-Filled Eggshell Gambit by Blake Eskin
New York Times - October 16, 2005
THE TALK; Art of the Game By Robert Hughes
New York Times - October 9, 2005
Julien Levy, Art Dealer by Lewis Kachur
http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/reviews/kachur/kachur9-8-98.asp
Imagery of Chess Checklist
http://static.scribd.com/docs/deyhb9shjaa74.pdf
The Imagery of Chess Revisited - edited by Larry List;
published by George Braziller, Inc.
Reviewed by Doug Bandow
about Imagery of Chess Revisited
http://www.bcmChess.co.uk/news/exhibition2003.html
http://www.Chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=963
http://www.Chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2697
Oldest Living Surrealist Tells All by John Glassie
Their Artistic Field of
Dreams - Newsday article by Ariella Budick, May 21, 2007
Marcel Duchamp edited by
Anne d'Harnoncourt and Kynaston McShine
Man Ray, American Artist by
Neil Baldwin
most of all, I want to acknowledge
my dear friend, Deb, whose help was utterly immeasurable.
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