CHESS AND WAR RESEARCH & PRACTICE BY REEO ZERKOS
CONTENT INTRODUCTION
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THE WAR
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THE CHESS
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CHESS & WAR (PERSONAL WORKS)
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INTRODUCTION There are 2 parts of this research in this book. The first part of my research is focusing on “War”, just as the same as the other boys, when I was young or even until now, I really enjoy at looking at all the details on mid-age armors and felt like blood boiling when I watching film, animation or ready stories about war. I started with random searching, online images, videos, and books. But I found it just too wide as WAR is such a big subject. Than I digged out photos that I took about armor exhibitions, most of them are in Europe, they are so many and beautiful that I need to stop putting too much exhibition photos in this book. Most of the modern war research are from The IWM, its really a perfect museum, and inspire me a lot. And I found I was really interesting about those engines inside the war crafts, they could be a project subject that I can develop in the future. What’s more, those amazing painting and posters during the war have unique tone and style, they are full of stories that far away but in front of me at that moment.
Soon, I linked the war to the games or sports that people crazy about nowadays. They actually quit similar in a way. they are all human nature, in most areas, people finally realized how important the peace is, but they need to spend their conquer desire somewhere. That’s way the competitive sports and games so popular now. As long as I narrow my research down, I focused on the “Chess game”, which is actually is an art field but lesser know. Thus it was a bit hard to research at the beginning until I found a professional book about chess art, I browed all the fine images and abscessed about the chess history. Then I visit some small exhibition about chess set collections, l also found a show online far away in US, hence I could only browed online.
the initial structur 3
In the end of this research (which actually would not stop as I will keep doing this as my interest in my life). I got a strong motivation to create some works on this topic, and I happened to have 2 monthly magazine cover commissions which is about “adventure” and“sci-fi” theme. So I decided to illustrate 2 composable works which tell a “chess and war” story. Meanwhile some small elements and icons that I designed about the topic been used in this research book.
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THE WAR 5
IWM is unique in its coverage of conflicts, especially those involving Britain and the Commonwealth, from the First World War to the present day. We seek to provide for, and to encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and ‘wartime experience’. We are proud to be regarded as essential sights of London, Cambridgeshire and Greater Manchester.
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uring those monthes, I visited 2 museums of IWM, the first one in London on 11. 9. 2014. , and another one in Duxford on 28. 1. 2015. Both of them were amazing. i abseesed with warcraft and sodiers since i was young. The museum gave me a chance to see all the details and histories on huge tanks and aircraft. i was so exsiting and runing around the museum just like a kid.
IWM is a family of five museums: IWM London; IWM North in Trafford, Greater Manchester; IWM Duxford near Cambridge; the Churchill War Rooms in Whitehall, London; and the historic ship HMS Belfast, moored in the Pool of London on the River Thames. The information on this website tells you about the permanent displays, the archives, special exhibitions, forthcoming events, education programmes, corporate hospitality and shopping facilities. 6
land craft 7
American Air
The American Air Museum at IWM Duxford stands as a memorial to the 30,000 American airmen who gave their lives flying from UK bases during the Second World War, and also honours those who fought in Korea, Vietnam, Libya, Iraq and other conflicts and battles of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. 8
This outstanding example of contemporary British architecture by Foster and Partners houses the largest collection of US historic military aircraft in Europe, including a vintage B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, B-25 Mitchell, P-47 Thunderbolt, and aircraft from the Cold War era such as a B-52 Stratofortress, SR-71 Blackbird and F-4 Phantom. 9
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s an island, Britain’s control of the sea was vital to defence. Air and Sea shows the changes in defence methods, from the giant battleships of the First World War to modern-day submarines and aircraft carriers. 10
aircraft cabin 11
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UNIFORMS IN DIFFERENT PERIODS
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A Exhibition of armor and weapon i saw in The Royal Palace of Sweden at 2013.
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hose armours are all from a small personal collection exhibition show, its about the gladiator culture in early Roma. Some of the helmets look like vicious face in order to scare the enemy, but some of them actually pretty funny for me.
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Another small exhibition about art works in the 1st World War. in Castel Sant’Angelo, Roma. on January 2015.
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A flag that american pilot always carried. helping and rewarding infomation been wrote as different languages.
pilot will get a stamp for each air fight he joined. and he can show this honour to his grandson when the victory day coming.
The Germans dropped these propagnda leaflets on Britain from the air
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Posters got across the idea of saving food and materials
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War Posters Some times when I saw those historical war recruitment posters, in a moment I feel I been calling, even that I know the war is far from us now. Those posters, simple, strong, and pointed directly to your mind, they tell you to fight for the honor or country, they never tell you the terrible reality behind this war. They are kind of successful in this way.
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ARTS DUTING THE WAR Those painting sduring the war, They are special, I can feel strongly personal emotion in them, some of the works show the daily life, some describe the cruelly of the war. I think the special background gave them special texture and still warning our generations. 27
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Stunning Aerial Artwork Of The First World War By Jesse Alter, Web Team
Brothers Sydney and Richard Carline were employed as official war artists by the Imperial War Museum during the First World War, each tasked with documenting aerial warfare. Between 1918-1920, the brothers produced dozens of artworks recording views over the Western Front, the Italian Front and the Middle East. Here is a small selection of some of their incredible artwork.
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Paintings Of Life Along The Western Front 30
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ENGINE Those engines of the giant machine really enchanted me, thus after some sketches, I thought the complex structures could be a good elements for design or illustrate.
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Sketch books & My war collections 35
WAR, ART and SURGERY
Henry Tonks & Julia Midgley
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visited the Hunterian Musian at 2015.2.6. The main exhibition is about animal and human specimens. But there is a small part inside about the sugary recording in the war and battlefield drawing. They are kind of special comparer with other art works we saw, they are dispassion just like medical profession, they are also revealed the fact of the war from a different angle.
“My intention has been to present a graphic record of military surgery in twentyfirst century in a sensitive yet universally accessible way” Julia Midgley, 2014 As part of the War, Art and Surgery project, artist Julia Midgley has spend time at surgical training facilities creating over 150 piecs of reportage art work that show soldiers on their road to recovery and medical professionals training to treat them. Military medical staff are trained at sites including Strensall Camp near York and RAF Brize Norton in Gloucestershire. Julia has practiced as a documentary artist for several decades. She draws rapidly from life, observing situations firsthand, and then completes the works in her studio. She became interested in surgery during a 1999 artist’s residency at the RLU and Broadgreen Hospital Trust. During that project. She first encountered Tonks’ drawn archive of Gillies’ reconstructive surgery on injured soldiers. 36
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The Chess 41
BOOKS I have to say, it’s a bit hard to find some books about chess, especially chess art as normally the chess book are focus on the skills of chess gaming. But I still found 2 books online, and borrowed one from CSM. Those books were really helped, they introduced the history of the chess, and displayed high quality image about rarity strange collections.
the art of chess by Colleen schafroth. 42
TOP: Marcel Duchamp The Art of Chess. by Francis M. Naumann, Bradley Bailey, Jennifer Shahade LEFT: 1937 Article Chess Maunoury Echecs Rook Bishop Knight King Queen Set Pieces Old - Original Print Article 43
Bishop,Queen,Rook(Lewis Chessmen). Scandinavia, Wa;ris Ivory, late 12th century
THE EARLY AGE CHESS 44
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CHESSBOARD
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INTERNATIONAL CHESS SETS Maryhill Museum of Art.
A 1957 exhibit curated by the museum’s director Clifford Dolph led to the creation of this permanent exhibit of chess sets. Today there are about 100 sets of these sculptures in miniature, representing the many countries, cultures and periods in which chess has been played.
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UNITED STATES, MOLDED CERAMIC C.1966
UNITED STATES, NUTS AND BOLTS DESIGN, HARDWARE LATE 20TH CENTURY
GERMAN VILLEROY & BOCH, COBALT AND CLEAR GLASS, C. 1975-1992 60
CAMBODIA,IVORY, EARLY 20TH CENTURY
MEXICO,TARASCAN INDIANS, MADRONA AND JABONCILLO WOODS, AND BONE. C.1944
MEXICO,STONE C.1968
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CHINESE IVORY, 19TH CENTURY 62
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INDIA, RAJASTHAN STYLE, PAINTED IVORY, LATE 18TH CENTURY 64
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THE ART OF CHESS Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s quote “From my close contact with artists and chess players I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists“, The Art of Chess exhibition challenges the former (artists) to engage with the world of the latter (players), by creating intriguing and highly individual chess sets. 16 artists were commissioned by RS&A to produce their variation on the ‘game of kings’, welcoming all interpretations concerning shape and materials, as long as they stay “playable”. There are some fantastic pieces, including Chapman brothers’ set with pink andbrown mannequins (sporting hairdo’s by Vidal Sassoon), Maurizio Cattelan’s Good and Evil set (with hand painted porcelain figures representing people he admires and despises), Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s Deadalive (with bronze sculptures of mummified animals as chess figures) or Paul McCarthy’s kitchenthemed set(created from random objects found in his own kitchen such as a cof66
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Different chess set and chessbord, and the Environment and Atmosphere do really effect the Chess game. 71
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Chess art Chess Club by Stushie 78
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zansky’s work
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FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY: A GAME OF CHESS PHOTOGRAPHED BY AN LE IN HARPER’S BAZAAR VIETNAM MAY 2013
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CHESS & WAR
SKETCH After researching, i decided to create a double page image about chess and war. and its also for a commision about 2 magazine cover. 420 Ă— 840 mm on paper. 84
MAIN COLOR SETS I am going to stick on dark blue and orange as the 2 key colors, represent 2 camps: high-tech and cold weapon.
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CHESS PIECES DESIGN
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SKETCH At the beginning, I draw a lot of details on the troops, then I found they looks better when I simplify the shape, and i thought the future robot soldiers should looks more like geometrical and full of abstract pattern; in the other hand, the cold weapon pieces supposed to looks more traditional such as a classic pedestal. and I also try to let them looks like cut wood or carved stone. 87