Chess Bazaar Urban Street Art Set

This is not a new idea, Purling of London Have being producing chess sets on this kinds artistic way for years.

They count with some 30 or so artist to paint the sets.

Even though I like some of the Purling of London designs, I think they are a bit overpriced, if you consider that their sets are going from $2500 and up.

I like this Chess Baazar Idea of going "street art" on the same kinda concept. Actually a really nice offer.

For the people interested on the Purling of London company here is the link to the forst name on the artist catalog:

http://purlinglondon.com/Darren-MacPherson.php.html

It is interesting to click down the whole catalog and see what all the different artist do with a unfinished chess set.

Yes David that URL has some really nice sets. Everytime I clicked the purchase button to see how much it had a broken link? Oh well some sets I would love to have.  

You move first, no, you move, no you...

taking the art in chess a little too far i think.

http://purlinglondon.com/shop/

Sitzkrieg.

Seems like a waste of boxwood if all your going to do is cover it up with paint and raise the price of the product.

Plus it just isn't appealing to me. The confusing colors would get really confusing in the opening game with a bunch of pieces on the board. There are other alternatives that are more attractive if you wanted an atypical set.

cool

I agree.! Still there are people out there that collect these type of sets.

A display in a museum is a good place for this stuff.  I do admire looking... not very practical.  Collecting, I can see that... the sets are not for me... given that I'm not a collector.

I would be a buyer at $99.00 that's it not a penny more. 

Way too distracting!  If thery're mimicing 20th century abstract artists, perhaps they can take a heat gun to some plastic pieces and create a Salvadore Dali set.

I understand some of this can be distracting, but some is not. It depends in how it is done.

I also think it is a great DIY poject. There are some unfinished sets on the market, and I can easily see the painting as a kids activity and so can get them more involve in chess if they have paint their own set.

As for the ones done by profecional artist. I have no much to say about this. Some of this sets look nice. It can get pricy, as anything this people paint.

The Street artist, or cheap knock off, is a nice offer. Of course a point can be made that a regular guy can't really produce art like a profecional artist. There is more to it than just randomly drop paint. By the way that is what the CB set looks like, paint, not acrilic, so if I interpret this pictures rigth there is a problem with the texture of the media, already.

Finally, I have comment this before, but for me one of the requarements of Art is that the object have to be useless. If it is meant to be used then it is Design.

So in terms of art there is not problem on making a chess set that can't be used to play with. In terms of Design there can be problem in making a set in such way that it becomes too distracting or too extrange that it can't be use in a normal way.

This koa bowl is design:

This koa bowl is art:

If you say so.

I don't think I get your point... I also have not idea what a Koa bowl is.

This discution of the diferences between art and design is not new.

Art advance a question, design offer and answer... and so on..

A koa bowl is a bowl made of koa wood. The first one was made to be used. According to you, it would not be art, but design. The second cannot be used as a bowl, thus is art.

Yes, the discussion is not new but you chose to bring it up again.

Ahhh i see. Thank you for clarifying the Koa bowl.

The first one looks fine, from the picture. So I am goign to agree with you in the design part.

The second one seams to be broked or chiped... I am not sure of this.

If that is the case then we will have to consider some things before understanding if this is art or not.

If it fell on the floor and broke up, it is not art, it is trash (old trash is name "artifact" and usually valuable). But if a person did this on porpuse to say something.... for example to show how broken are the traditions in Hawaii... or whatever, then we can be getting close to the concept of Art.

And I didn't bring up the topic. for some time now on this combersation the topic of art have being a constant. and of course some messages are talking about how useless some of the sets shown here are. I am just pointing out that it is fine for art to be useless.

Now, you can incorporate elements of art on a design. And if this is done the rigth way the object improves, if it is done wrong then the art afects the use of the object, and you end up with bad design and maybe questionable art.

Cool.

Dali designed a chess set.

But, was it art?