IC Design
Noguchi Chess Set
Quantity:
Authorized Edition of Isamu Noguchi’s Chess Set and Board
Designer: Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988)
Design year: 1944
Of the many chess set designs made by major 20th century Modern artists few were both as innovative and deeply rooted in tradition as the Chess Set and Table ensemble created by Japanese – American sculptor Isamu Noguchi for the 1944 Imagery of Chess exhibition at Julien Levy Gallery in New York, organized by Levy and artists Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst.
Being of mixed Japanese and American parentage, Noguchi combined his passion for pioneering Modernist forms with a deep respect for the history and traditions of both Eastern and Western cultures. Instead of regular Western black and white pieces, Noguchi made his figures of translucent red and green Plexiglas to echo rubies and emeralds often found in Moghul jewelry.
Being of mixed Japanese and American parentage, Noguchi combined his passion for pioneering Modernist forms with a deep respect for the history and traditions of both Eastern and Western cultures. Instead of regular Western black and white pieces, Noguchi made his figures of translucent red and green Plexiglas to echo rubies and emeralds often found in Moghul jewelry.
There is no record of what happened to the original chess pieces, but ever since the 2005 debut of a replica set of Isamu Noguchi’s lost original 1944 chess set in the Imagery of Chess Revisited exhibition, the Noguchi Museum has been inundated with requests for a new edition.
The Noguchi Museum and IC Design have been conducting materials research for some time and are excited to produce a new edition of the 1944 Noguchi Chess Set accompanied by an attractive Perspex black folding board with red and translucent white circular inlays, modelled after the artist’s original tabletop design.
Concept and Text courtesy of Larry List, THE IMAGERY OF CHESS REVSITED, Noguchi Museum/George Braziller, Publishers
Board open: 58 cm x 56 cm Largest piece King: 9 cm high
