«The Chessboard, large version comprises five enlargements of the figures in the Chessboard, small version (1955) : the King, Queen, Knight, Castle and Bishop. In order to convey her creative intention of mobility, which she had already expressed in the Chessboard, small version, Richier intended her Chessboard, large version to appear as though the figures have just moved, and may soon move again. Richier planned a paved floor of large blue squares to suggest the board, comparable to the base of Chessboard, small version. In the summer of 1958, she and I went to Vallauris, where she began her search while I worked on pottery. Richier loved the color blue and wanted her figures to appear in a casual arrangement on the paving, so long as they were not too far apart, so as to maintain the intimacy of the group. Before casting, Richier painted the original plasters. She exhibited them for the first time in June 1959 at the Galerie Henri Creuzevault--the cover illustration for the exhibtion catalogue showed the king from the Painted Chessboard--and again in July at the Musée Grimaldi-Château d'Antibes, today the Musée Picasso, directed by Romuald Dor de La Souchère. Richier had already introduced color into her works in the Lead Works. In 1951 she had asked some artist friends to paint screen to serve as backdrops. In 1953 she began increasingly herself to paint on certain works and to add bits of colored glass to the Lead Works. In December 1956 she enameled some bronzes. In 1958, she said to Yvon Taillandier, who had come to visit her at Tour d'Aling in the Midi: "With this business of color, I may be wrong or I may be right. I don't know. Anyway, what I do know for sure is that it pleases me. Sculpture is serious. Color is gay. I want my statues to be gay, alive. Color on a sculpture is usually distracting. But after all, why not?" In the spring of 1959, after returning to Paris from the Midi, Richier turned more intently to color. "This collaboration helps her to extend her freedom because once she is satisfied with the 'form' such as the pieces of the Chessboard, once she is freed of that, she can focus exclusively on the paint, in that limbo between plane and volume." The five figures of the Chessboard, large version were not completely painted. Richier first painted vertical lines in various areas, as though to mark the axes of balance: she painted verticals with a certain confidence, in black and dark blue on the King and Bishop, in blue and orange on the Queen, in blue and pink on the Castle, and in red on the Knight. Based on these, she then allowed her imagination to play, brushing on planes of a whole variety of colors (violet, orange, and sky-blue; yellow, pink and orange), consciously overlapping some and juxtaposing others, following and highlighting the planes, ridges, hollows, volumes and modeling, while also imparting a specific personality and even emotion to each, as with the Castle's pierced heart. By merging the planes and volumes of the painter with those of the sculptor, Richier created a joyful "painting-sculpture" in harmony with the vigor and vitality of her creations.» F. Guiter, excerpt from the exhibition catalogue "Richier", Venice: Peggy Guggenheim Collection, 2006, p. 116
Exhibitions : (Another edition of this sculpture) Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, May 8-29, 1960, XVIe Salon de mai, n°25 Zurich, Kunsthaus, June 12-July 21, 1963, "Germaine Richier", n°117 London, Tate Gallery, April 22-June 28, 1964, "1954-1964: Paintings and Sculpture of a Decade", n°106 Arles, Musée Réattu, July 7-September30, 1964, "Germaine Richier", n°79 Paris, Musée Rodin, May 2-June 3, 1968, "Forces humaines", IIIe Biennale internationale de sculpture contemporaine Humlebaeck, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, August 13-September 25, 1988, "Germaine Richier", n°41 Hamburg, Kunsthalle, 1988, "La Troisième Dimensions".
Bibliography : PROVENANCE Germaine Richier Estate PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Gand, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Belgium Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany Oslo, Astrup Fearnly Museet for Moderne Kunst, Norway Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Jardin des Tuileries, France LITERATURE G. Limbour, "Personnagee imaginaires", Lettres nouvelles , June 17, 1959, pp. 31-32 R. Dor de la Souchère, "Créations et récréations de Germaine Richier", in Germaine Richier , exh.cat., Paris: Galerie Creuzevault, July 17-September 30, 1959 R. Barotte, "Germaine Richier... a mêlé la réalité à l'imaginaire", Paris-presse - L'Instransigeant , August 4, 1959, p. 6 P. Descargues, "Une force en marche", Les Lettres françaises , August 6-12, 1959 R. Couturier, "Tribune de Paris - Adieu à Germaine Richier : 'La force de son oeuvre'", Tribune de Lausanne , August 9, 1959 A. Giacometti, "Tribune de Paris - Adieu à Germaine Richier : 'Assis parmi ses sculptures'", Tribune de Lausanne , August 9, 1957 M.-H. Vieira da Silva, "Tribune de Paris - Adieu à Germaine Richier : 'Son atelier était plein d'une étranger musique'", Tribune de Lausanne , August 9, 1959 F. Hellen, "La première exposition posthume de Germaine Richier", Les Beaux-arts , April 22, 1960, n°894, p. 12 P. Schneider, "To Germaine Richier", Art News , Summer 1960, n°4, pp. 49-50 and 66 J. Cassou, Richier , 1961 H. Cingria, "Itinéraire provençal : 'Arles'" Les Lettres françaises , July 30-August 5, 1964 R. Varia, "Un poet tragic", in Secolul 20 , Summer 1968, n°3 Brassaï, "Germaine Richier", Les artistes de ma vie , 1982, pp.194-197 I. Jianou, G. Xurigura, A. Lardera, "Richier Germaine", in La Sculpture moderne , 1982, p. 178 E. Lebovici, "L'atelier de Germaine Richier vu par Pierre-Olivier Deschamps", Beaux-arts magazine , November 1989, n°73, pp. 94-99.