Sketch for "Checkmate"
Kauffer spent the majority of his successful career working as a commercial artist in England, creating advertising posters that reflected his interest in Cubism, Italian Futurism, and Vorticism, a British art movement with affinities to Cubist abstraction and Futurism’s radical embrace of the machine. This work is one of Kauffer’s designs for "Checkmate," a ballet by Arthur Bliss. It shows a white hand or glove-like form in the center of the composition holding what appears to be a piece of fabric that turns from black to red. A two-toned, light-blue and black background accentuates the design’s graphic and dimensional effect.
Artwork Details
- Title: Sketch for "Checkmate"
- Artist: E. McKnight Kauffer (American, Great Falls, Montana 1890–1954 New York)
- Date: ca. 1937
- Medium: Opaque watercolor on paper
- Dimensions: 13 7/16 × 17 7/16 in. (34.2 × 44.3 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020
- Object Number: 2021.54.24
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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