Chess posters

Master Velíšek’s painting

[21.04.2015 00:00:00] - After years of silence, the well-known artist Martin Velíšek has begun to paint again and one of his new works is a poster for the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2015 chess festival. The two depicted chess players radiate great concentration and energy, but also cheerful playfulness. Maybe they are playing, maybe they are just analysing; they stand at the chessboard like carved statues, objects of our interest and observation.

The chess festival, which will see a play of the best Czech chess player David Navara against the 7th best player in the world, the Filipino American grandmaster Wesley So, will commence in two months. Save the date: June 12 – 16 at the Michna Palace in Prague on the Kampa Island. These premises proved to be ideal during the previous years of the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY chess festival. Ancient and with a pleasant atmosphere, the palace is an oasis of peace in the middle of the city, just a few steps away from the park and the Čertovka Channel. You can now take a look at the picture from the poster, which will invite you to the Kampa Island.

The impression from the whole event starts with the design of its posters. “For a chess event to be beautiful and successful, all the details have to be beautiful and carefully prepared as well. It is not just about choosing interesting grandmasters with an attractive style of playing (which grandmasters Navara and So undoubtedly are), but it is, for example, also about choosing witty and nimble commentators, who explain and comment on the game in the adjacent hall. And it is also important to choose adequate premises for the event and the design of posters,” says the president of the Prague Chess Society Pavel Matocha.


Martin Velíšek’s painting for the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2015 poster, March 2015.

Over the years, the Prague Chess Society has contacted famous Czech artists to design posters for its events. In the previous years of ČEZ CHESS TROPHY, this included for example Luděk Bárta and Richard Cortés, the design for the Chess Train was created by Jiří Slíva, Miroslav Pošvic and this year Miroslav Barták. Martin Velíšek (born 1963), the author of the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2015 poster, graduated from the School of Industrial Art in Kamenický Šenov (1979 – 1983) and from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (1983 – 1989, glass-working department). Apart from dozens of paintings and glass artefacts, Martin Velíšek is the author of many book covers for the Argo publishing house, where he also published his book Lyžaři and a pop-up book Už jsme doma 11+4 (he is the author of the album covers and posters for the “Už jsme doma” group). Velíšek illustrated the famous Czech novel Babička and painted the walls of the famous pub U vystřelenýho voka in Prague, Žižkov. He contributed to the animated film versions of Jan Werich’s Fimfárum and Fimfárum 2, for which he was awarded the Czech Lion award for the best design and the best creative artwork.

His first exhibition was in 1987. In the past he was interested in glass art, but in the middle of the 1990s he almost left the three-dimensional space and moved to painting and canvas and paper drawing. At the beginning of the 1990s in Znojmo, his joint exhibition with a friend Michal Machata ended with a funny scandal, when the museum director had to cover expressively portrayed women’s private parts.

The Czech Television produced two documents about Martin Velíšek: Jaro, peklo, podzim, zima (1994) and Ateliér civilistního parealisty (1996).


Martin Velíšek’s chess drawing, 1997.


The metaphysicist. Painted fused glass on metal, 1991.

| Pavel Matocha | visits(5618x)