MAURIZIO CATTELAN (b. 1960) GOOD VERSUS EVIL

Provenance
RS & A Ltd, LONDON

Exhibited
LONDON, Gilbert Collection, Somerset House, THE ART OF CHESS, June 28-September 28, 2003

Literature
C. Phillips, ed., THE ART OF CHESS, LONDON, 2003, p. 47 (illustrated)
"The Art of Chess Exhibition," BRITISH CHESS MAGAZINE (BCMCHESS.COM), LONDON, September 2, 2003
C, Stewart, "Check Out Chess Masterpieces," TIMESONLINE, LONDON, June 21, 2003
J. La Placa, "The Art of Chess," ARTNET.COM, July 21, 2003
G. Glueck, "It's a Cast of Hundreds, from Hopper to Christo," ART REVIEW, February 25, 2005

In 2003, the Gilbert Collection in London mounted an exhibition entitled THE ART OF CHESS. The exhibition included 19 chess sets designed by artists dating back to the beginning of the 20TH century. THE ART OF CHESS exhibition succeeded in not only piquing the interest of chess enthusiasts but also of fans and patrons of Modern and Contemporary art. Organized along a similar vein as a 1944 exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York entitled THE IMAGERY OF CHESS, the Gilbert Collection exhibition included chess sets designed by popular contemporary artists. Works by Yayoi Kusama, Damien Hirst, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Paul McCarthy and Maurizio Cattelan were exhibited alongside those by other 20TH century artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Alexander Calder and Yoko Ono. Further heightening the experience one had with the exhibition and each individual chess set was the way in which each one illustrated a move in the final apocryphal chess match between Napoleon Bonaparte and General Henri Bertrand on the isle of St. Helena in 1820. Maurizio Cattelan's GOOD VERSUS EVIL, was chosen by the exhibition organizers to represent Napoleon's fictional final move in this battle. Considering the uncertainty of the actual chess match having occurred and the rumor, speculation, and humorous observations pertaining to the validity of Napoleon's mastery of the game, the choice of Cattelan—with his satirical almost tongue-in-cheek sense of humor—to depict this move seems ideally suited.

Commissioned by RS&L Ltd, a London-based company dedicated to producing innovative collaborative projects with Contemporary artists, GOOD VERSUS EVIL is yet another example of how Maurizio Cattelan is continually translating his mischievous sense of humor into tangible objects. Using some of the most recognizable characters from popular culture and history, Cattelan is able to make this particular work accessible on multiple levels to a vast audience. The work posses an almost universal appeal, with its contrasting the figures of Adolf Hitler as the Black King against Martin Luther King, Jr. as the White King. Cruella Deville (The Black Queen) stands in opposition to Mary Magdalene (The White Queen) and Sigmund Freud makes an appearance on both sides which can be construed as a visual play on his psychological theories of the structure of self.