Remember when i blogged about this photograph?
Probably not.
But someone did and thanks to my dearest Dexterous, i now know the Belgian artist, Rinus Van de Velde is responsible for this arresting piece of work.
And i was right, it is based upon the chess grandmaster, child prodigy Bobby Fischer.
He learned the rules of chess at the age of 6.
He was the winner of every tournament and match he participated in between the years of 1962 to 1972, with only two exceptions.
He was a mere half point behind in both cases.
From what i've seen and read, he was a very sad character but when it came to chess, he was unstoppable.
What is it about genius and mental instability?
That's actually what my university dissertation was going to be about.
Bobby Fischer makes me want to start studying for it again.
He even makes me want to learn to play chess properly.
And Rinus Van de Velde has reminded me that:
'I prefer marginal figures. It doesn’t work with famous people as Einstein or Picasso, they’re too known. When I look at pictures I start inhabiting them – I think up a story, fantasize about what it would be like to be inside of them.'
When i draw, i work from photographs and i've always been self-conscious about the use of images from well-known places, with instantly recognisable faces.
(excuse the rhyming)
Plenty of people can make incredible images with famous characters.
A guy i went to college and university with was able to do exactly this by creating monoprints of newspaper headlines and he did it with style and a hell of a lot of understated grace.
His name is Neil Ogg.
He's a very interesting character.
One of my favourite memories of Neil is being in my design class at college - i hated that class - and whilst everyone else was wittering on about inane bullshit, Neil was reading something highly intellectual - i can't recall what - with one knee curled up towards him, with no air of superiority whatsoever.
Not many people are that unawarely and effortlessly cool.
So look at his work.
I command you.
However, unlike Neil and more akin to Van de Velde, i veer more towards the lesser known creatures of the world.
It's why i still feel slightly uncomfortable with this piece of work:
The top half contains a drawing i did of Vincent Gallo from his 1998 film, Buffalo '66.
Gallo's no Brad Pitt or Ryan Gosling but he's still a decently well known actor/director/musician.
If you haven't heard about his controversial film, The Brown Bunny, then i do believe you must have been cowering in a cave for the last 10 years.
So it unsettles me slightly that he may detract from the rest of the image.
With the general unsung, there isn't this problem.
I may just be nuts though.
There's a fair chance.
Here's some more of Rinus Van de Velde's sublime work and a link to an interesting interview he did with The Word only last year:
Listening to: Paramore 'Grow Up'
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