About the exhibit
Konstantin Chaykin's blueprint of the ‘Joker’ dial captures the features of the very first version of his celebrated watch, unveiled to the public at BaselWorld in 2017, and so holds the status of an almost documentary record of the birth of one of the key images within the master's horological universe. It would later give rise to an entire line of Wristmons devoted to the archetypal figures of the mask theatre and the playing-card deck.
Working on the drawing, the artist used a graphite pencil, capable of rendering every facet and nuance of the dial's intricate decorative finish, so that the very act of drawing here becomes equivalent to the act of construction: the line of the pencil follows the logic of the future engraving.
Through his combination of different shading techniques, Chaykin succeeded in translating the art of guilloché onto paper. This art descends from the ornaments of baroque craftsmen and the court engravers of the seventeenth century, who once adorned the snuffboxes and watch cases of European monarchs. By drawing the graphic artwork of the watch using this technique, Konstantin Chaykin proves that drafting structure can accommodate even the most intricate decorative ornament. In this way, the graphic artwork becomes not a preparatory study in the usual sense but an independent exercise in inventive translation, in which one technique is carried over into the language of another.
Cycle: Universum ‘Horological Graphic Art’
Working on the drawing, the artist used a graphite pencil, capable of rendering every facet and nuance of the dial's intricate decorative finish, so that the very act of drawing here becomes equivalent to the act of construction: the line of the pencil follows the logic of the future engraving.
Through his combination of different shading techniques, Chaykin succeeded in translating the art of guilloché onto paper. This art descends from the ornaments of baroque craftsmen and the court engravers of the seventeenth century, who once adorned the snuffboxes and watch cases of European monarchs. By drawing the graphic artwork of the watch using this technique, Konstantin Chaykin proves that drafting structure can accommodate even the most intricate decorative ornament. In this way, the graphic artwork becomes not a preparatory study in the usual sense but an independent exercise in inventive translation, in which one technique is carried over into the language of another.
Time is not merely a measure. It is a philosophical dimension, an inexhaustible source of inspiration, and the central subject of my art universe.
