Chess Board Print

The painting Chess Board is inspired by various conspiracy theories. The painting depicts the long-standing confrontation between Russia and England in the political arena. This process is about 200 years old and started when both states were great and powerful empires. This geopolitical confrontation which includes diplomatic intrigues, conspiracies, spy games, war conflicts and sometimes periods of formal friendship has been called the Great Game. In the picture we can see two chess players. The left figure stands for Russia. The facial features of the seated man are not Slavic, it is a mixture of Slavic and Asian type. This is how the Russian genotype is presented in the poem Scythians by Alexander Blok: “Yes, we are Scythians! We are Asians! With slanted and eager eyes. ” At first I wanted the left chess player to wear clothes that would match the colors of the Russian flag. While painting, the blue color darkened to nearly black which was more appropriate to the common color range of the picture. The right figure means the Great Britain. On the one hand, the stick with a snake head tells us about the wisdom and great experience of the empire, and about the wiliness of the right player on the other hand. Special attention should be paid to the surroundings. It is a kind of an underground tunnel or a bunker. Probably, the long-term confrontation between the chess players led to the situation when they have to hide into a shelter where there is no comfort. The game is coming to the end, but it is not clear which of the chess players has the advantage and whether any of them can win. It seems that the long-standing party is leading to a draw, which speaks of the uselessness of the invested strength and made sacrifices. The eaten chess figures represent these victims who were made during the Game. Chess players keep them in a glass jar, which additionally shows their attitude to the victims. Next to the jar is a pyramid with a broken top. The pyramid represents the human hierarchy in society; at the top of the pyramid are the people who perform the power. The two depicted players who govern the destiny of humanity are just at the top of the broken part. The broken pyramid shows the separation of the elite from the common man and the impossibility to regenerate this chain. Players are obsessed with power; wealth and luxury are not valuable to them as can be seen by their clothes. The dog watching the game harmonizes the whole composition, gives the integrity and the sense of life to the whole picture. Its presence also underlines the apocalyptic character of the picture. I consciously paint the objects which are characteristic for the present. These are the already mentioned glass jar, the lamp with the light bulb that works on electricity, the high bar chair. On the other hand, the players' clothes are more archaic and testify to the duration of this Game. The combination of modern and "classic" elements in the painting seems interesting to me and suits my artistic aesthetics. A special detail is the levitating chess board; it gives the picture mysticism and contradiction. We mostly associate the effect of levitation with the Eastern tradition, but in this case the levitating chess board is related to the idea of technical progress and it is an element of luxury. It symbolizes the priority of rational and scientific knowledge of European civilization. On the other hand areas of spiritual knowledge such as culture, religion, history, art have a secondary importance. In my opinion, this is a wrong attitude and it leads to the collapse of European civilization and the humanity.

Print:Giclee on Fine Art Paper

Size:8 W x 10 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:13.25 W x 15.25 H x 1.2 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.