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Number of versions: 7
Edition: July 3, 2005
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Subject::
Lifesized Monopoly tokens - Your Move
Place: Philadelphia - USA -1996
Artists: Daniel Martinez, Renee Petropoulis and Roger White
Web site: www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/philadelphia
Penny Melling & Bruce Whitehill frolic in Philadelphia's Municipal Services Building
Plaza along the John F. Kennedy Boulevard between 15th and Broad Streets, where lifesized Monopoly tokens and other game pieces abound.
See for more pictures of these tokens taken by Bruce Whitehill his above
mentioned site.
Your Move is a collaborative work by Daniel Martinez, Renee Petropoulis and Roger White consisting for the most part of over-sized
Monopoly, chess, domino, and other board game pieces (bolted down to prevent over-eager game players casting them into traffic).
Subject:
Painting "The Monoply-players"©
(click on picture for a picture of 1828x1188 pixels)
In the Dutch newspaper Het Parool of Thursday, December 17, 1998 was the
article "Euro makes holy houses and hotels tumble - An improved Monopoly
game", by Hans van Maanen. (See his own site: http://www.vanmaanen.org/hans/artikelen/monopoly.html). This article showed a large picture of "The
Monopoly-players", a picture that clearly goes to show that monopoly was
already played in the 16th century. So that asked for closer investigation
and this is the story:
The leading players are some young Italian painter called Caravaggio
(1573 - 1610) and the present-days Dutch artist Joost Veerkamp.
Initially Veerkamp made parodies and changes on famous paintings, of which
finally the designs of his stamps arose. So the stamp with "The
Monopoly-players" arose from the painting "Supper at Emmaus",
where Jesus blesses supper for his disciples. The second stamp of the small
series of two was made after the painting "The Potato Eaters" by
Vincent van Gogh.
Since 1988 Veerkamp yearly issues a number of "stamps", who can be
collected in a loose-leaf album. These albums are still available with:
More about Caravaggio in: http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Caravaggio2.html
and about Vincent van Gogh in: http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Impression/Gogh.html
Subject: Three
Hotels on Broadway Boogie-Woogie-1949
Artist: Mark Caywood - USA - 2001
Dimensions of the painting: 56" x 46" = 1.42 x 1.17 m
Mark Caywood - Fort Worth, TEXAS, USA---is obviously a great artist with an incredible
sense of humor. He started his satiric web-site, Caywood's Art Gallery, in
2001, and gave it the subtitle "Art for International Museums, Collectors, Galleries and Dealers". Amongst the great number of different subjects he
denounces is the oil on canvas painting by Piet Mondriaan, inspired by Monopoly, which he describes as follows
(see:
http://home.earthlink.net/~fwbull/sale_11.html):
"This piece, part of a series Mondrian painted to honor America's favorite board game, was lost for many years. In the early 1960s, a janitor found it while cleaning out a storage closet in The Playboy Club, which had taken over the space previously occupied by Mondrian's studio.
In this colorful composition, the artist appears to be making a comment on the pivotal aspect of American corporate economic strength, ie."Monopoly", while at the same time, his innovative placement of various street names and sales prices implies a profound indictment of urban exploitation perpetrated against the poor."
Subject:
Graffopoly
Artists: Unknown graffiti-sprayers - New York - 2001
Dimensions of the artwork:
abt. 5 x 25 m
I was pointed to this maxi sized artwork by Matthijs Hoogenboom from Amsterdam.
This spot is known as the so called "Harlem Graffiti Hall of Fame".
The wall is an innerwall of a school complex in Manhattan, the Harlem district,
on the Park Avenue and 106th Street. The artworks of this "Hall" are
yearly over-painted in the scope of a graffiti event, so meanwhile Graffopoly
does not exist anymore. A pitty!
Subject:
Monopoly Haagsche Bluf - wall painting in The Hague - NL
Artist: Carl Palm - Den Haag - May 2002
URL: www.carlpalm.nl
Dimensions of the board: 4 x 4 m
There is a modern kind of almshouse in the centre of The Hague - Holland,
called Haagsche
Bluf. This shopping mall is owned by the real estate developer
"Geste" in The Hague, who practised a beautiful combination of modern
style and old façades in order to give an international character to these
streets.
The owner of the Haagsche Lounge restaurant (www.haagschelounge.nl) together
with the artist came with the splendid idea to embellish a plain wall next to his
terrace with a blown up Monopoly game board naturally with the real estates
of the "Geste"group, because "Geste" does own more
streets and a number of properties around the Haagsche Bluf area. It is obvious
that Monopoly came in mind because it is a matter of buying and selling,
money and power. Also on this game board the sequence of the streets
is such that the "cheap"streets are in at the start of the game and
the "expensive" streets at the end. The choice was (most probably
unintentionally) made for the Parker/Hasbro design, i.e. with the black
engines on the station spaces, the blue
treasure chest and the gold ring on Super Tax. From Start on the spaces
are:
Achterom - Algemeen Fonds - Gortstraat
- Inkomstenbelasting - Station Zuid - Nieuwstraat
- Kans - Raamstraat - Wagenstraat
- Slechts op bezoek
- Fluwelen Burgwal - Electriciteitsbedrijf
- Prinsengracht - Jan
Hendrikstraat - Station West - Kettingstraat
- Algemeen Fonds - Herengracht - Grotemarkt
- Vrij Parkeren - Hooikade
- Kans - Denneweg -Noordeinde
- Station Noord - Lange Poten - Spui
- Waterleiding - Dagelijkse
Groenmarkt - Naar de Gevangenis - Venestraat
- Vlamingstraat - Algemeen Fonds - Haagsche
Bluf - Station Oost - Kans - Spuistraat
- Extra Belasting and Lange Voorhout
(where a number of embassies are established).
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It is remarkable the artist took the liberty (and no doubt the spectator
agrees) to readably write the texts with the jail's rascal and the red
Free Parking car, while one don't need to turn his head to read the street
names on side 1 and 3. |
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The stations are not those of The Hague. |
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Only 2 of the 3 yellow streets of the
Parker/Hasbro edition also appear on this board. |
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Indeed the prices are in Euro's, however the values are those of
the 1996 and earlier issues, so a factor 100 higher than of the actual
standard editions.
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Subject:
Mondriopoly - Dutch board 1943
(click on picture for a picture of 664x670 pixels)
Artist: Nick Blackburn - London - Oct.2002
Dimensions of the game board: 35 x 35 cm
On his versatile web-site http://www.snap-dragon.com/index.html
Nick Blackburn - London also made a comprehensive chapter called Mondrian
Homage. It contains paintings of a great variety of subjects painted the
Mondriaan way.
Being a great admirer of the Dutch painter Piet Mondriaan as well as a
Monopoholic he asked me for a copy of an early Dutch Monopoly gameboard.
And next is what he made of it.
Edition:
Dutch Monopoly
Maker: Aaron Wrighting -2004
Dimensions of the board: 75 x 52 x 5,3 cm/ 7 kg
The game:
This very special product of
Aaron Wrighting -NL definitely belongs to this Art Galery, because he
considers it a work of art that has to be shown on the wall.
Aaron made this very luxury board of unusual dimensions and weight within
60 hours. For its design he looked at the Franklin Mint mahogany
wood edition on a pedestal of 1992 (see "Game
Editions") and to Parker/Hasbro's 60th anniversary
issue (the gold box) of 1995. Hence the holografic diamond on the felt
cloth of the countersank midfield of the rectangular board.
Furthermore Aaron tells about this board, of which he is very willing to make
copies "to measure" on demand:
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The board is made rectangular because a painting most
times also is. So this is a work of art that can be played on as well. |
 | The spaces along the short sides do have the same
dimensions as those of the Parker/Hasbro game board and consequently the
spaces on side 1 and 3 are too wide. |
 | The partition lines between the spaces are inserted
aluminum rods wrapped around with gold tape. |
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De straatnamen zijn met een label-tang gemaakt op
goud-band. |
 | Friction characters have been used for the other
characters. |
 | The license plate of the car on Free Parking, viz AW-19-68,
has everything to do with the maker of this board. |
 | There is a "real" diamond" in
the gold ring of the "Super Tax" field. |
 | There are 2 trays of mahogany
timber, with felt at the bottom, for the cards and 1 for the
banker's property deeds. |
 | The somewhat unhappy looking man behind the bars and the
car have been painted by hand. |
 | The cards and property deeds, money, tokens,
houses and hotels
and dice are those from the gold box.
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