Past Exhibition

Checkmate! Chess Sets from the Maryhill Museum of Art

January 7 – March 15, 2020

Study Gallery

This exhibition was set to close April 26 and closed early due to COVID-19

Over the past 1000 years, the game of chess has spread across the world, crossing cultural and political boundaries. Organized by HFMA curator Jonathan Bucci and drawn from the extensive collection of the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington— one of the finest collections of its kind in the United States—the exhibition features approximately two dozen chess sets from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas that date from the 18th through 20th centuries. While operating within a predetermined structure of the 32 game pieces, artists bring their own creativity and interpretation to each set, resulting in a wide variety of themes and materials. Created with wood, glass, bone, and ivory, the sets include traditional designs, as well as abstract, non-figurative sets and narrative sets depicting mythological characters or historical figures.

The exhibition was curated from the beloved collection of over 400 chess sets at the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington. Chess has a long history at Maryhill, going back to an early director, Clifford Dolph, who first curated a chess exhibition in 1957; the exhibition proved so popular with visitors that it was extended twice and the museum began collecting chess-related materials. Today Maryhill’s George E. Muehleck Jr. Gallery of International Chess Sets houses a permanent exhibition featuring sets and pieces from all corners of the world.