The history of chess spans some 1500 years, the earliest predecessors of the game originated in India. The social value attached to the game seen as a prestigious pastime associated with nobility and high culture of the medieval era.
For me the Game of Chess is like the Game of life. The name of the game is to win, to survive, the same as real life. The objective is to win, but the challenge is designing and then acting out a strategy to achieve that goal–as in life, you must constantly evaluate and change your playing strategy.
Painting The Game of Chess allows me to enter into an imaginary world whereby I can invent a life situation in my mind and then put my imagination into each character, the King, the Queen, the Bishop, the Pawns, the Castle. Each one portraying a different angle a different personality; I actually enter the game and become part of it, it is like I am in the game.
I was commissioned a couple of years ago, to do a large Chess Painting, Future Conceptualism, reverse painted on plexiglass, an original style, difficult and laborious, impossible to retouch, but upon completion, you are presented with an unforgettable image with an infinite perspective and vibrant colours which can only be achieved on plexiglass, giving you an original composition that no other style can offer–an interpretation of the play ‘White Wins”, a complex and an intriguing work of art by the New York Playwriter, Richard Hart McMahon (its content emphasizes chess, and encompasses philosophy).
He had emailed me during the summer of 2009 when we were in Spain, asking if I would be interested in interpretation his play in a visual form–reverse painted on plexiglass. He said he was already a client and had bought several paintings during the 90′s from the gallery in Quebec City. He felt that his play would not be complete without an original painting by Ygartua –a visual expression to compliment his play. (quote from his email: ”My dream is to own a Paul Ygartua painting which embodies an abstract visual depiction/essence of my play”).
I remember Joanne reading his play White Wins on the Chunnel crossing–Paris to London, 75 pages to read. We spent the weekend with my family in Liverpool and Anton and Lotta came up from London and Tala and Mathieu and Willow flew in from Paris, then we returned to Soho, London and spent a couple of days there where Anton lives and runs his business BOXLIGHTMEDIA.COM. Then we left for Vancouver and Joanne continued reading this engrossing play, she finally finished the 75 pages upon arrival in Vancouver. I was so involved with the characters of this play that I felt that they were my associates.
I had two weeks in Vancouver to work for the shows and White Wins, before leaving for the Toronto Show and then on to the New York Show, it was perfect–the crate went straight to New York with the 6 ft x 4 ft Plexiglas. The New York playwright and his wife arrived the first hour of the show–they were elated with my interpretation of “White Wins” and I was very happy with the results and an opportunity to work on such an intriguing play.
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