One of the biggest and most impressive chess games in the collection comes from the shop at the Dali Museum in the Spanish town of Figueres. Did the eccentric artist himself actually design this chess set? An investigation ensues…
Chess game Dali style
While deciding which chess sets we would discuss on the website this year, Ridder Dijkshoorn, director of the museum, showed me a large bronze game. The chess pieces were over 20 cm high and had a medieval design with a modern twist.
The game, Ridder told me, may have been created by Dali, since the artist´s name was engraved in the pieces. He had bought the set in an antiques shop in Amsterdam, but the owner of the shop couldn´t guarantee that the artist was, in fact, responsible for the design of the game. Ridder decided not to insist on a certificate of authenticity since the shop was located in the better part of the Spiegelstraat, across the street from Bram Mozkovitch´ then law firm. Meanwhile, in Ridder´s head his memory disk sprang into action: hadn´t he seen this chess game before, in a ´commercial museum´ in Barcelona that was entirely dedicated to Dali? Or was this a case of his memory playing tricks on him, because of wishful thinking?
It didn´t really matter to him. He was only just able to pay for the game precisely because it didn’t come with a certificate of authenticity. He had to cut back a bit on other expenses in the weeks that followed, but Ridder had gained an extraordinary piece for his Chessmen Museum. It was then up to me to dive into Dali´s history to see if I could find any further information on this chess set.
Well known chess game by Dali: Fingers
Very talented and very spoiled
On May 11, 1904, Salvador Dali is born in the small Catalan town of Figueres, close to the French border. His birth comes nine months after the death of one of his older brothers and he is named after his deceased sibling. Dali would always feel as though he was the replacement of his brother. He is born into an influential family. His father is an authoritarian and conservative notary, while Dali´s mother comes from a distinguished family with contacts in the art world. She spoils her little boy rotten and he grows up to be an insufferable bully. The relationship with his father, who tries to teach him some discipline, is bad. This is a recurring theme in the artist´s work.
Even at a young age it becomes clear that Dali is very talented and he takes up drawing lessons when he is ten years old. His work has been appreciated ever since he was still a child. Aged fourteen, he has his first painting exhibition and the critics are very positive. In this period in time he uses an impressionist and cubic style in his paintings. Dali finds inspiration in the area he was born in and the coastal town of Port Lligat, where his family often spends time during the summer. Even in his childhood years he behaves in an eccentric manner and this only gets worse as he gets older.
Unique style
Dali goes on to study at the Royal Academy of Arts in Madrid and soon gets his first solo-exhibition. Again, he receives rave reviews. Even so, he gets kicked out of the academy for refusing to take an exam. He thinks the examiner isn´t talented enough to grade him. At this point in time Dali develops his ´putrefacto´, which means decay or rotting. It shows up in a lot of his art work in the form of donkeys or ants nibbling on corpses. In his student days he experiments with a number of artistic styles and he starts painting so pointedly and with such great detail that his work almost seems photographical.
Dali and Gala playing chess. By Getty Images
Dali becomes more and more eccentric and hysterical and he uses his recurring nightmares in his paintings. Only when he meets Elena Diakanoff, his future wife and muse Gala, does he find balance in his life again. In those years he creates his most famous – surrealist- paintings and he also starts making surrealist artefacts. He designates everyday objects a new function and turns them into fine art. He develops the paranoid-critical method as well, a systematically wrong interpretation of reality. He literally transfers his absurd dreams onto canvas and creates new realities without holding back on anything or avoiding taboos.
The Spanish Civil War and World War II hanging over their heads, Dali and Gala flee to America. A contract with his wealthy friend and patron, Edward James, provides a steady income and Dali can focus completely on his work. A number of his exhibitions in America receive very positive reviews and turn out to be the highlight of his international fame. The American high society loves Dali´s surrealist style. After the war he returns to Europe, though the couple spend the winters in New York. The arrival of television as a mass medium in the sixties allows Dali to satisfy his enormous need for attention and he makes sure he gets regular coverage, together with his group of extravagant friends. This way, he draws attention to his art. Besides painting, the talented and versatile Dali keeps himself busy with photography, film, illustrations and 3D-technology.
Image of King and Queen in Alchimie des Philosophes
A little bit immortal
In 1982, Gala dies and Dali, incredulous, gets obsessed by the concept of immortality. He goes on to design his own museum and works out all the details himself. The museum is accommodated in the old theatre where he had his first exhibition, in his home town Figueres. He even spends the last years of his life here. He stops painting in 1983. In 1989, Dali, one of the greatest artists of his time, dies of heart failure and he is buried in his own museum. This way, he sort of reaches immortality…
An interesting story about a fascinating person, but it hasn´t answered the question of whether he designed the bronze chess pieces or not. Even less so if you know that the man himself made it quite easy to forge his autograph by selling it. We do know of one chess game designed by him, with chess pieces shaped like fingers. Dali was a chess player himself so it isn´t surprising that he designed these pieces. Whether that is the case of the bronze game at the Chessmen Museum, isn´t clear. It is more likely that the pieces are inspired by Dali´s work, more specifically, by an image from the book Alchimie des Philosophes (1975). Have a look at the king and queen in the picture. If this is the case then it is quite possible that the chess set was sold in the shop of Dali´s own museum.