Sketch for "Checkmate"

E. McKnight Kauffer

ca. 1937 · Gouache on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

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.

Artist

E. McKnight Kauffer

Date

ca. 1937

Medium

Gouache on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020