Sunday, October 10, 2010

How To I Read These Dimensions

Duchamp e gli scacchi


Marcel Duchamp (born in Blaiville village in Normandy, 20 km from Rouen - France, July 28 1887 and died in Neuilly-sur-Seine on October 2 1968) the famous French artist, often used the theme of chess in his works. He is also known as a great lover of chess. In 1923, 36 years, Duchamp's chess career has officially started. In that year, played his greatest tournament in Brussels, placing third. Practically this year for 12 years, Duchamp ceases to be art active and dedicated almost solely to chess. In 1922 he became champion of the Metropolitan League of New York and is part of the team Marshall Club di Scacchi. In novembre incontra il grande campione Capablanca ma perde. 

Nel 1924 entra a far parte del club di scacchi di Rouen. In agosto partecipa al Campionato francese di Strasburgo e in settembre a Rouen diventa campione dell' Alta Normandia. 

In quell'anno partecipa al film Entr'acte (Durata: 22') del regista René Clair e soggetto e sceneggiatura di Francis Picabia, e la sua parte consiste nel giocare una partita a scacchi su un tetto di Parigi con l'amico Man Ray . 

“Entr’acte” nasce come intermezzo per uno spettacolo della compagnia di balletti svedesi diretta da Rolf de Maré (che compare anche nel film), in tournée a Parigi. Collaboravano con Erik Satie, un grande musicista del quale tutti conosciamo una musica per pianoforte dal nome complicato, “Gymnopédies”, o magari "Gnossiennes", nomi difficili da ricordare ma che all’ascolto si riveleranno compagnie piacevoli e ben note. La musica di Satie per Entr’acte (il film è muto ma la musica allora si suonava dal vivo) ricorda spesso Hindemith, e talvolta anticipa Philip Glass.

Partecipò ai campionati francesi dal 1924 al 1928, e pure a quattro Olimpiadi Chess from '28 to '33.

His obsession for chess became stronger and stronger over the years, and about his own marriage in 1927, a friend, Man Ray (great exponent of surrealism) wrote: "Duchamp spent most the week of their honeymoon studying chess problems, and his wife to despair, revenge, getting up one night while he was asleep and glued all the pieces to the board. They divorced three months later. "

In 1935, Duchamp was appointed Captain of the French team for the Olympics to match that lasted 4 years. Duchamp remained undefeated and scored 9 11con on the highest individual score. In the same year Duchamp concludes a tournament for the first match of placing FSB (9 points out of 11). And 'This is the last time we see Duchamp engaged in a chess tournament. The cycle of competitive chess is over.

The attraction of the game "competitive" will decrease gradually from 1945 to 1968 without another sconmparire never definitively. So much so that in the last two years of his life he participated in the tournament in Monaco.

Portrait de joueurs d'échecs (1910) - Olio su tela, cm. 50x61
Collezione Arensberg - Philadelphia Museum
Duchamp Marcel (1887-1968)

E' uno dei quadri giovanili più importanti, dipinto nell'agosto del 1910 a Puteaux, rione periferico di Parigi, ove il fratello Raymond aveva una casa. Il soggetto del dipinto è una situazione familiare a Marcel: " La partita di scacchi ". Marcel in questo quadro ritrae i suoi due fratelli che giocano a scacchi in giardino con a lato le due cognate che prendono il tè. Qui appaiono ancora gli influssi di Cezanne (il quadro ricorda nell'impostazione and colors the famous "The Card Players ," and the game is still seen in its concrete reality, although the storage of the pieces on a chessboard shrinks from any system. And 'this is the first painting to the theme of "Chess" by Marcel.


Study for chess players (1911) - Oil on canvas, cm. 50x61
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)

is the same as Marcel explains the painting "Portrait of Chess Players " located at the Art Museum Modern Paris (dimensions: cm. 108x101) which is the final version of the study referred to above: "Using the technique of gears in my interpretation of the Cubist theory, I painted the heads of my two brothers while playing chess not in a garden but this time in an undefined space. On the right Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon to the left, the sculptor, each head indicated by the following profiles. At the center of the canvas some simplified form of chess pieces placed in case. Another feature of the painting is the gray tone of the collection. Usually the first reaction against cubism "Fauvism" was to abandon the violent colors and replace them with muted tones. This canvas was painted in the light of the gas (which gave a green light) in order to obtain the damping effect of color when you see it again in the light of day "( Marcel Duchamp, The Museum of Modern Art at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Prestel, 1989, p.. 254).


La Partie d'Echecs (1910)
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)


Portrait de joueurs d'Echecs (1911)
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)






Jeu d'Echecs avec Marcel Duchamp
(game of chess with Marcel Duchamp)
Drot Jean-Marie, 1963-1964
16 mm, white and white, 51 min.

The director establishes contact original Marcel Duchamp playing chess with him - passion of metaphor by the artist and his art - which becomes the occasion of the experience of story, pause for reflection for interesting statements of poetics, an excuse to track their movements in the city of New York, his adopted homeland. The rapid transitions between youth and maturity of the artist, the past is made present in memory, an actor and a witness shows Duchamp, Duchamp presents its most famous works together in a major retrospective, Duchamp focus of brief statements of Edgard Varese, Nicolas Colas, Hans Richter mounting the pieces move with skill and allows the director to play a good game and realize one of his best documentaries.


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" The chess pieces are the alphabet which shapes thoughts, these thoughts and express the beauty abstractly "

" have come to the conclusion that not all artists are chess players, but that all chess players are artists "

Marcel Duchamp

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