Salvador Dali and chess

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chess.com/article/view/t...n-levy-gallery Interesting musings. Something different from your normal fare here on CT.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Salvador Dali and chess

https://www.chess.com/article/view/t...n-levy-gallery Interesting musings. Something different from your normal fare here on CT.

Interesting indeed... thanks for the link. I notice the almost obligatory picture of Dali playing chess with his wife with the board set up incorrectly.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Salvador Dali and chess

Dali and his wife were playing that way and it was hurting their heads and they were probably wondering why. (I am probably reading deeper into it than I should)

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Salvador Dali and chess

Dali and his wife were playing that way and it was hurting their heads and they were probably wondering why. (I am probably reading deeper into it than I should)

At least the board and the pieces were not "melting" off the couch while they were playing... *that* would have made it interesting and on point.

[Neil Frarey]

Re: Salvador Dali and chess

Dali and his wife were playing that way and it was hurting their heads and they were probably wondering why. (I am probably reading deeper into it than I should)

The board was set up correctly ... not incorrectly. To the Surrealist juxtaposition and symbolism (etc., etc.,) was/is a very valid expression ...especially one of provocation.

It's amazing how our game was adopted and reinterpreted by so many surrealists and their contemporary artists in general on into conceptual art. Modern art (including Impressionism) has been able to challenge and redefine itself time and time again. The Board, the pieces, all the side elements such as clock etc., are there to be challenged and redefined.

Ray, Ernst, Dali, Tzara, of course Duchamp ...up to Ono and on into 21st century chess has been and will continue to be a dynamic ever challenging mode of expression ...and I can't get enough!

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Salvador Dali and chess

The board was set up correctly ... not incorrectly. To the Surrealist juxtaposition and symbolism (etc., etc.,) was/is a very valid expression ...especially one of provocation.
...

I see in one of the comments (which I had not bothered to read) there is an assertion that the picture must have been inverted in the article since the original photo showed Dali on the right and his wife on the left...

[Neil Frarey]

Re: Salvador Dali and chess

Just to further the conversation it's crazy interesting how within the history of art there's been so many many different (strangely chronologically making sense, like a family tree) manifestos yet in each 'branch' the game of chess has been used as a means to deliver their respective manifesto.

Ono (member of Fluxus) chess board (with some inspiration coming from Lennon I guess who knows)

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/36/34/31.../1024x1024.jpg

I've tried but have never been able to fully appreciate the Surrealists manifesto. Dali is still one of my fav artists tho. His depiction of of Christ on the Cross done for the prisoners at Rikers Island is epic. To my (over active) mind he seems to use a splatter technique which as far as I know dates back to Japan's Momoyama period!

I wonder why chess has been reinterpreted in so many many different and unique ways ...including variant chess?

As president of the CFC I would commission a chess set carved by some Inuit artist with the piece depicting elements of their own natural hunter way of life. Pawns as seals, rooks as igloos ... that sort of thing.

I'm beginning to ramble.