Chess Board 1920

Editor: This is Jacques Villon’s "Chess Board," created around 1920. It's an etching, a type of printmaking, and it has such a strong geometric feel. The first thing that strikes me is how Villon plays with perspective; the chessboard seems to float. What do you make of it? Curator: It does dance, doesn’t it? I think Villon is showing us that everything is constructed, perceived in angles. What if this image is about more than chess, what if he's showing us how we build order from chaos, rule by rule, line by line? What pieces do *you* think he has moved into place in his own life, the rules of his craft and his personal beliefs? The angularity mirrors the fracturing of Cubism but there is something more playful at work than with some of his contemporaries. Editor: So, Cubism’s fracturing but with playful rules. The severe lines create such a structured composition! Do you think the etching medium reinforces this structured feel? Curator: Absolutely. Think about etching. You score lines onto a plate and the acid bites into the metal. It is almost the act of *creation* becoming an analytical, rational exercise... not so far off from planning a game. Does the stark black and white then remind you of an argument perhaps? I see echoes of a rational discourse attempting to find a point. Editor: It's true; the back and forth of a chess game mirrors a critical debate. So, would you say the abstraction emphasizes that conceptual strategy over realistic representation? Curator: Yes, perhaps like the mind’s eye over mere vision, that pure intellect is on show. It certainly gives you food for thought! What I will take with me from today is that I had never considered how materials are intrinsically part of meaning. What a game! Editor: I completely agree. This has opened my eyes to seeing beyond just the visual. Art is so much about its thinking and production!