Max Ernst

Max Ernst contributed two of the most important pieces in the Imagery of Chess show. The first submission was that of his chess set which met and exceeded Duchamp's criteria. Entirely redesigning the pieces to reflect both their representations and their functions, they are possibly the most significant since the Hartwig's Bauhaus set from 1924.

Ernst's second important contribution was that of his chess sculpture, King Playing With the Queen.

Ernst also created the Strategic Board where the importance or value of a particular square is indicated by the color tone of that square

It's interesting to compare Ernst's sculpture with Dorothea Tanning's painting. In Ernst's sculpture, the King dominates and manipulates the Queen, while in Tanning's painting, a woman's high-heeled shoe crushes a Bishop's mitre.

Even more interesting is to compare Ernst's sculpture to some later works that seem to play off his theme:

          
Tanning is played with by the King in Capricorn                         Lee Miller's photographic version
                        the two photos above and the three below were taken in Sedona, Arizona

Max Ernst, a photo-essay -

             
  Max Ernst and Caesar Buonarroti, 1920 Photomontage                                Gala Eluard, left, toyed with Ernst, married Dali.              

                                        
Max Ernst and Marie-Berthe Aurenche, Paris 1936                     Leonora Carrington                               Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst
Marie-Berthe Aurenche was his 2nd wife, 1927-1937                                                                         Ernst left her for Peggy Guggenheim in 1941

         
             Peggy Guggenheim in Venice                                                                     New York, 1941

a later set designed by Ernst (on display at the Nassau County Museum of Art, Rosyln Harbor, NY