Max Ernest's passion for chess

Max Ernst and the passion for chess

Max Ernst has always had a great fascination for chess game. Great player, he shared his passion with his wife Dorothea Tanning and his friend Marcel Duchamp.

But, beyond the intelligence of the game, this fascination stretched more to the artist facing the symbolic magic of each piece and the graphics games resulting from their moves.

He sees, in chess, a living sculpture where the forms of each piece confront in a metaphysical dance.

Thus, even before his passion for sculpture, his first achievements in volume, in 1929, were models of surrealistic style of chess pieces, some of which were reproduced in bronze.

In 1944, its research on the symbolic of chess pieces takes on a new dimension with an extreme perfection.

Each piece is subject to dozens of clay studies.

He finalised its research by creating a complete chessboard set of outstanding quality, made of wood.

Simultaneously, he created one of his master pieces , "The King playing with the Queen", a sculpture of more than one metre high, five samples, apart from author edition, produced by a bronze-smelter.