Chess Noir - exceptional & rare. Please call for details.
In Stock
Description
Exceptional one-off artwork by Thierry Noir. Modern day Street Art interpretation of the classic Chess Set. Trademark colourful Noir hand painted imagery hand on the board with individually hand painted "Noir" characters and text on each chess piece.
Commisisoned by specialist board game company Purling.
Artwork supplied in original Purling packaging with perspex display case.
- - Board is 55 x 55 cms with max height of 15cms for the Chess pieces
- - Acquired directly from Purling in 2019 via their UK broker.
- Supplied with Purling Certificate of Authenticity - - Purling brochure supplied with the artwork, presenting "Chess Noir" and press images of the artist individually painting the "Chess Noir" pieces
Please contact the gallery for details and pricing. Contact Us
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Artist
Thierry Noir (1958) In April 1984, Noir began to paint the Berlin Wall and is credited as being the first artist to do so. Noir’s objective was to perform one real revolutionary act: To paint the Berlin wall, to transform it, to make it ridiculous, and to help destroy it prempting its ultimate fall in 1989. Noir covered the Berlin Wall, more than 3 metres high, with bright, vivid colours, aiming not to embellish the wall but to demystify it. Noir’s iconic, bright and seemingly innocent works painted on this deadly border symbolised a sole act of defiance and a lone voice of freedom.
Painting on the wall was absolutely forbidden; it was built 3 metres beyond the official border so the east-German soldiers were able to arrest any person standing near it. Noir had to paint as quickly as possible, using the recipe of ‘two ideas, three colours’ as a celebration of the ‘eternal youth’. Despite their bright colours and playful nature, the murals left a lingering sense of melancholy: As Noir says, “I did nothing but react to its sadness”.
Since the 1980s, Noir’s exploits and highly distinctive visual language have become world famous and immortalised in popular culture such as Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of Desire and the cover of U2’s album Acthung Baby. Noir is today being increasingly recognised as a key forerunner of the modern street art movement. Noir is also compared with contemporaneous New York pop artist Keith Haring also born in 1958 and who likewise began his career on the streets.
Noir’s practice has a strong emphasis on line and aims to simplify forms to their most basic elements. This simplicity reflected the necessity of painting quickly outdoors in a hazardous environment with very real risks to his personal safety. Noir reacted to his environment and his monsters are a metaphor for the Wall itself, each one relating to his experiences or feelings of what he calls a ‘killing machine’.
Dimensions
| Width | 55 |
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| Height | 15 |