1920

The Chessboard

French, 1875 - 1963

In his first etching after World War I, Villon's technique showed an extraordinary refinement that had not been present in his earlier Cubist prints. In this work, he subjected the table and chessboard to what he called "constructive decomposition," by dividing them into stacked planes infused with light and shadow. Working in fine, dense strokes, he created layered zones of varied tones by maintaining absolute control over the spacing of parallel lines and crosshatchings. The result is an image of a chessboard that progressively emerges through infinite tonal variations, as though it had floated to the top of a dark pool. The Chessboard was published in Die Schaffenden, a German quarterly review.