Nine Men’s Morris board, late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century, painted wood, 15½ by 15½ inches. American Folk Art Museum, promised gift of Doranna and Bruce Wendel. Bruce Read photo.
By Madelia Hickman Ring
NEW YORK CITY — On September 13, the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM) opens “Playing with Design: Gameboards, Art and Culture,” which follows a gift of gameboards and photographs from the collection of Bruce and Doranna Wendel that was announced by the museum in June 2024. Celebrating not only the beauty of gameboards but also the greater cultural meaning behind them, the exhibition will showcase more than 100 gameboards from the Wendels’ collection. It will feature early examples of classic games including Parcheesi, checkers and chess, as well as hand-painted iterations of some mid Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century games, such as Chutes and Ladders and Monopoly. Photographs depicting gameplay will round out the presentation.
“The exhibition was prompted by more than the Wendels’ gift,” as Emelie Gevalt, curatorial chair for collections, curator of folk art and the curator of “Playing with Design,” explains. “There has not been a major exhibition on gameboards in many years, despite their popularity among collectors and their deep interpretive value as objects that speak to histories of American culture and daily life.”
The topic is not a new one, which Gevalt discusses in greater detail. “The Wendels curated a gameboards exhibition for the American Folk Art Museum in the mid-1980s: ‘Winning Moves: Painted Gameboards of North America,’ featuring boards from their own collection as well as others. In 1991 and 2003, the New-York Historical Society held two significant gameboards exhibitions that have contributed to the scholarship, although both focused on commercially produced boards. ‘Playing with Design’ is the first show in many years to feature hand-painted gameboards.”
Chutes and Ladders board, late Nineteenth Century, painted wood, 25 by 18½ inches. American Folk Art Museum, Gift of Doranna and Bruce Wendel, 2024.7.5. Bruce Read photo.
AFAM’s connection to the collectors, familiarity with the material and mission “to showcase forms that are often overlooked in the context of the ‘fine art’ canon” make it the ideal venue for the exhibition. “We provide a rich context for the discussion of gameboards as objects that were both functional and artistic, often homemade and used within a domestic or community setting,” noted Gevalt. She hopes the show will foster future study through technical analysis and greater documentation of the form.
The curator noted that a resurgence of gameplaying during the pandemic gave some urgency to explore tangible connections between the present moment and “the material and creative vibrancy of the past.”
In preparing for the exhibition, there were both revelations and dispelled preconceptions for the curator. “Although boards are often assumed to be late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century, folks were making hand-painted gameboards in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Although these are rarer to find, it is fascinating to see that Americans were fashioning their own gameboards even before the taste for gameplaying became popularized by mass production.”
She continued, “The range of board types is truly astonishing — from bold, geometric examples that could easily find a place in a survey of Modern art, to highly personalized examples that speak to particular interests or relationships, like a masonic board painted with repeating death’s heads and compasses, or a chessboard with sides allocated for husband and wife.”
Agon board, late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century, painted wood, 24 by 24 inches. Collection of Doranna and Bruce Wendel. Bruce Read photo.
“Though people have been playing games since ancient times, gameboards have been slow to gain recognition for their major contributions to human development, socialization and artistic expression,” said Gevalt. “Because of the Wendels’ special collection, we’re able to examine how gameboards can provide deep historical insights into the values and priorities of American culture and creativity.”
She hopes viewers leave not only with a new appreciation for the “creative exuberance” of the form but are also “inspired to think about how homegrown artistry might play a role in their own lives.”
Thematic sections divide the show, exploring ideas of craftsmanship, design, culture and history of game-playing in the United States. Some examples will remind viewers of familiar modern games, while others will give material shape to historical ideals, including morality, religion, patriotism, entrepreneurship and imagination. The gameboards on view will speak to underlying concepts of adventure and risk-taking as fundamental to life in the United States, proven through games organized around the themes of a train journey, a whaling expedition or a trip around the world.
Parcheesi board, late Nineteenth Century, inlaid wood, 19½ by 19¼ inches, AFAM, Gift of Doranna and Bruce Wendel, 2024.7.1. Bruce Read photo.
It was no accident that game-making increased in the mid Nineteenth Century, buoyed by a growing society with greater leisure time. This demand was met by an increased supply that was made possible by technological advancements. Manufacturers in the United States and England replicated models from Europe, and the games were often aimed at education or the moral improvement of the players, while hand-painted examples offered alternatives to commercially produced games.
Players of one of the show’s travel game variations raced towards a castle, encountering various maritime obstacles and receiving rewards along the way, while a Parcheesi board — rendered in inlaid wood — depicted a house in the center, showing the literal “Home” that was the objective of many games. A fortune-telling game featured a list of questions and capitalized on the popularity of Spiritualism, or the belief in the ability to contact the dead. The Game of the Goose, which was introduced in European courts in the Fifteenth Century, symbolized the ups and downs of a spiritual journey, requiring players to advance along squares associated with stages of life.
Double-sided checker or chess board in the form of a book (The Sailor’s Bible), possibly by Alfred Cambell, possibly Gray, Maine, mid or late Nineteenth Century, carved, inlaid and painted wood, repurposed cigar-box components, 14 by 11 inches. American Folk Art Museum, Gift of Doranna and Bruce Wendel, 2024.7.13. Bruce Read photo.
The section on design focuses on societal changes in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries driven by innovations in industry, fast-paced urbanization and population growth. The development of chromolithography paralleled new design sensibilities that included abstract colorful designs.
As leisure culture expanded and Americans looked beyond the home for recreation, there was an increased popularity in games of skill and chance, including wheels of fortune, darts, shoot-out games and ball- and ring-toss games. Some in the exhibition have built-in storage for playing “on the go.”
“Playing with Design: Gameboards, Art and Culture” will be on view at the American Folk Art Museum from September 13 through January 26.
The American Folk Art Museum is at 2 Lincoln Square, at Columbus Avenue and West 65th Street. For information, 212-595-9533, info@folkartmuseum.org or www.folkartmuseum.org.
