The Art of Chess

Throughout the 20th century the game of chess has been an inspiration, if not an obsession, for artists. The Art of Chess exhibition features nineteen chess sets dating from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day.

Each set illustrates a move in the fictional last game played by Napoleon with General Bertrand on St Helena in 1820. In the starting position is the world's only known set designed by Carl Fabergé, specially made in 1905 for Tsar Nicolas II's Commander-in-Chief of the Russo-Japanese War, General Alexei Kouropatkin. Visitors can then follow the game through the porcelain designs of the Lomonosov State Porcelain Factory in Russia in the 1920s; the 'Propaganda' chess set with Capitalists versus Communists; to Marcel Duchamp's Buenos Aires chess set of 1919, and the geometric designs of the Bauhaus set by Josef Hartwig. There is also a set created by leading Fluxist artist Yoko Ono, as well as five specially commissioned new designs by Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Paul McCarthy and Maurizio Cattelan, the latter being laid out as the final move; checkmate. In legend at least Napoleon won his last great battle!

The Art of Chess

Künstler: Marcel Duchamp, Josef Hartwig, Yoko Ono, Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Paul McCarthy, Maurizio Cattelan ...