Chess – Alexander Calder

In 1944, Alexander Calder created an original chess set for The Imagery of Chess, a groundbreaking exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York. It was one of three sets he designed in the 1940s — and the one he kept for play at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. Calder’s set challenges tradition: the queen is larger than the king, reflecting his belief in matriarchal values and the idea that balanced relationships include women guiding men. The oversized knight disrupts the board, inviting deeper attention—both to the game and to life. And rather than black and white, he used red and blue, rejecting notions of binary opposition or built-in superiority. A close friend of Marcel Duchamp, Calder gifted his first set to the famed artist and chess enthusiast. Duchamp famously said, “While all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.”

This unique Cahiers d’Art edition faithfully recreates Calder’s 1944 chess set. Crafted from solid wood with exquisite precision, each piece echoes the spirit and scale of the original— transforming the game into a work of art.