The great chess exponent Vasily Smyslov often regarded chess as an art, claiming that the game was more about creativity than anything else. To almost consolidate that comparison in one’s mind, the Apparao Galleries at The Lodhi have held an exhibition, titled The Art of Chess which celebrates the mind sport that traces its origins to the confines of the royals in ancient India, often their treasured past time, admired most elegantly through the medium of film and art.
As one glances through the pieces of art on exhibition, the creation of which has been the collaboration of over 30 artists across the country, it is a silent reminder of the afternoon that astute minds spent competing for black or white supremacy, in a most intriguing manner.
The exhibition is idea of celebrated curator Sharan Apparao, who by the looks of the exhibition is an ardent admirer of the game herself. “The game of chess originated in India. We’ve seen mentions of it in our ancient texts and also in the Mahabharata. Chess is not about the game but it is about strategy. It is about the conflicts that come about in daily life. We’ve been doing a series of talk and it is during these talks that the idea of Chess Exhibition came to my head. Every artist interprets things differently so I thought it would be a brilliant idea to ask them to contribute something that is their interpretation of the game, I approached about thirty artists with whom we work regularly with completely different ideas and they would do what came to their mind,” she says on the origins of the idea for the exhibition.
Artworks in enamel, chess pieces carved in marble, a customised chess set that folds neatly into a triangularly shaped box are all a few of the delightful pieces that have found their way into exhibition. For those who seek the arousal of multiple senses, there are sets which tingle the taste buds or confuse the olfactory system with their intricate complexities. A walk through the works is sure to pop some questions in the minds of those artistically inclined, wondering about infinite possibilities of expressing the rather familiar characters on a chessboard, much like the infinite possibilities that a chess player encounters when he plays the beautiful game.
