Chess Set (Pieces)

Currently not on view

Chess Set (Pieces)

Designed 1942

This chess set was among the artist-designed works shown at The Imagery of Chess exhibition held at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York in 1944–45, and it received favorable reviews in Newsweek and Art Digest. The nineteen-year-old Filipowski designed the simple, elegant chess pieces and board at the instruction of László Moholy-Nagy, his professor at the Institute of Design in Chicago. The two sides are differentiated by the pieces on one side having a small dot drilled into their undersides and filled with black paint. The board was not executed at the time of the exhibition; the one seen here was produced in 2004 to the artist’s specifications.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Chess Set (Pieces)

Date:

Designed 1942

Artist:

Medium:

Acrylic resin

Dimensions:

King: 1 15/16 x 5/8 x 5/8 inches (4.9 x 1.6 x 1.6 cm) Queen: 2 x 3/4 inches (5.1 x 1.9 cm) Bishop: 7/8 x 13/16 x 3/4 inches (2.2 x 2.1 x 1.9 cm) Knight: 1 3/16 x 1 1/8 x 11/16 inches (3 x 2.9 x 1.7 cm) Rook: 7/8 x 3/4 x 3/4 inches (2.2 x 1.9 x 1.9 cm) Pawn: 5/8 x 3/4 inches (1.6 x 1.9 cm)

Classification:

Toys (including dolls, games, puppets)

Credit Line:

Gift of John F. Harbeson, 1964

Accession Number:

1964-91-33(1--32)

Geography:

Made in United States, North and Central America

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Currently not on view