Marcel Duchamp has, above all, loved chess and created two chess sets in his life. His 1943 Pocket Chess Set has become a rare and valuable collectors item, but his 1918 set, made upon his arrival in Buenos Aires is owned by a private collector and not viewable by the public.
Scott Kildall is clearly devoted to the artist and his love of chess. A few years ago, he created a game, Playing Duchamp, which allowed you to play against a program designed to play like the artist using his chess sets. Kildall and Bryan Cera used archival photos to recreate the chess set as a 3D-printable set of data. Cera wrote that Kildall’s goal was “resurrecting objects that have been lost.” The pattern is entitled Readymade, after Duchamp’s famous readymade pieces, “an ordinary manufactured object that the artist selected and modified for exhibition.” Several people have already printed the set in various materials and colors. You may download the file to print your own here.
(Images via Kottke)
