Chess set

Details

JAKE & DINOS CHAPMAN (b. 1966 & b. 1962)
Chess set
32 pieces in bronze with hand-painting, real hair wigs styled by Eugene Souleiman, lead crystal bases, ebony and rosewood board and box with inlaid skull and crossbones veneer, 2003, number 2/7 (there were also three artist's proof sets), published by RS & A Ltd., London
Knight 220 mm., Pawn 110 mm.
Board 300 x 790 x 790 mm.

Literature

Mark Sanders, RS & A. Ltd: Contemporary Artists’ Chess Collection, Waterside Press, London, 2003 (p. 7-8, ill.).
Yves Marek, Art échecs et mat, Editions de l’imprimerie nationale, Paris, 2008, p. 183 (p. 166, ill.).

Exhibited

The Art of Chess, Somerset House, London (exh. cat.), 28 June - 28 September 2003 (p. 6-7, ill.).
The Art of Chess, Gary Tatintsian Gallery, Moscow (exh. cat.), 2006 (p. 14-15, ill.).
32 Pieces: The Art of Chess, Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland (exh. cat.), 24 January - 13 April 2009 (p. 68-71, ill.).
The Art of Chess, Dox Centre of Contemporary Art, Prague (exh. cat.), 2010 (p. 23, ill.).

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

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Lot Essay

Jake and Dinos Chapman started working together in the early 1990s and have become one of the leading art partnerships in the contemporary British art world. Though their works may initially recall the immediate sexual shock value of Salvador Dalí, the Chapman brothers ultimately give resonant form to pre-adolescent male obsessions with fantasy forms of conflict, violence and mutation. The two artists, who play chess themselves, perceive the game as an intersection of warfare and play, linked to the fears and anxieties of childhood. Drawing inspiration from the transgressive gender-blurring sexual innuendo of Duchamp’s moustachioed Mona Lisa, their chess play becomes a slippery, catch-as-catch-can form of confrontation and ‘mating’. Like visions from a dream, the hyper-real level of detail lifts this chess set of pubescent nightmares from the realm of shock to one of profundity.

This work is accompanied by a certificate issued by the publisher.

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