The best games for art lovers? For those of you who have been following my YouTube channel for some time my confession today won’t be news, for everyone else maybe it will. For some time now, probably since we’ve been spending more time at home, I’ve been getting carried away by board or card games for art lovers and I’ve bought three/four of them, all different from each other. I’m Clelia and today I’m sharing my favorite art-themed board games. 

Board games for art lovers – My experience I

probably never realized this obsession with board games in general but I’ve always had it. For example, when I was a little girl I had a lot of fun with my friends occasionally playing Trivial Pursuit in a thousand different variations. Then with the time between university, work, travel, books and Netflix I lost the habit a bit. However, as I told you some time ago in my video on the game Going going gone I gladly resumed playing from time to time. 

Games for art lovers – 1. Guess the artist

Guess the artist – How to play

The first game I want to tell you about I got last Christmas and it’s called Guess the Artist, literally translated Guess the artist. It’s a card game. A box set of 60 cards, one for each artist. The mechanism is as follows, you can play both in pairs and in groups. You take turns taking a card and your opponent has to guess the protagonist artist of the card through three clues. I’ll give you an example, what comes to your mind if I say pumpkin, bangs and dots? Who is the artist? Kusama, of course. And so for another 59. 

Guess the artist – Some examples of cards

So we will have apple, bowler hat and writing for Magritte. Or mustache, lobster and cat for Dalì. The good things about this game are two in my opinion: the first is that you challenge yourself and your opponent not on stupid notions or dates that are of no use to anyone, but on anecdotes and curiosities. And the second is the fact that on the back of each card there are insights. So we find out why each character has been attributed that specific object, animal or characteristic. Finally, it’s funny that it’s not just 20th century and contemporary artists but also some great masters of the past. 

Games for art lovers – 2. Art oracles

And still on the subject of card games, a new entry for me this Christmas, that is long before Christmas but with the idea that it was a Christmas gift, there is Art Oracles. I first saw this game in a museum shop in Dublin and fell in love with it. It exists in various versions including fashion and music, not just art and that’s how it works. Again there are cards. 50 to be precise, also in this case, each one corresponds to an artist. However, these have been defined by the creators of the tarot card game. In fact, their purpose is similar to that of the book of answers.

Art oracles – How to play

Draw a card and the artist on duty will give you an answer, a sort of horoscope on one of these times: life, work or inspiration. For example, Ai Weiwei invites us for the life category to scream when the authorities order us to remain silent. Instead Warhol lets us know in the work category that we have to give time to our 15 minutes, that is, they will come for everyone. And then there are great artists that I am particularly fond of like Boetti on whom I wrote my three-year thesis, who lets us know that there are different ways to read a map. And therefore different ways to approach life. 

Art oracles – The catalog with stories and curiosities

The nice thing in this case too is that you can learn more about some curiosities about the artist through a little book that doesn’t tell the usual life in a nutshell, even a little trivial at times. But on the contrary, curiosities are reported. Like for example the legend that tells that Cindy Sherman can go undisturbed to her inaugurations without being recognized by photographers and because she always dresses up. 

However like this there are so many stories, motivational phrases and anecdotes both in the cards and in the booklet. So I recommend it if you love quotes or want to give a gift to an art lover, especially from the 1900s. 

Games for art lovers – 3. UNO

The next card game is almost a collector’s item for me. This is the art-themed edition of the classic UNO, the most famous game in the world. Two versions were made by Mattel. One is inspired by the works of Keith Haring and the other by those of Basquiat. Honestly, from a graphic point of view, I recommend them both, it will depend only on your tastes. The rules of the game are simple and will be clear to everyone right from the start because they are exactly the same as the classic UNO so I won’t tell you about them but I will tell you the particularities of this edition. 

UNO – The box

set Inside each box set you will find two decks of standard cards with graphics inspired by the works, therefore the classic blue, red, yellow and green cards + jokers and an extra 4 cards that are not used to play but are designed like a small puzzle, in fact if put together they make up a work of art. 

Finally, if you take a look at the two games online, which are also found on Amazon, don’t worry if you notice that they are in English or even German because the instructions inside each box are in all languages ​​so you will be able to play safely . 

Games for art lovers – 4. Going Going Gone

So we come to the last game, which is also my favorite, so much so that I dedicated an entire video to it. I’m talking about going going gone. This time it is a real board game, not just a card game. The mechanism is a mix between Monopoly and game of the goose. You roll the dice, go through the number of boxes dictated by chance and find out what will happen. The aim of the game is to build your own collection. Just as in Monopoly an empire of houses is built. But how to build this collection? You have to buy the works at auction or at fairs, exchange them with other collectors, lend them to museums or inherit them. Just like in reality. 

Going Going Gone – How to play

You start from the square called the Venice Biennale, the center of modern and contemporary art for decades. But above all, it starts with a billion and a half dollars and 4 random works of art. Like this one about the Biennale, all the other nods to the art market are real. So auctions can take place in major cities like London, Paris, New York or Berlin and the same goes for fairs in Basel or Miami.

Then there are many ups and downs due to the Lawyer’s box, or the Detox box which forces you to lose shifts, money or even worse, works of art. As happens in real life, one must always take into account personal unexpected events that can stop the construction of a collection. 

My Favorite Game for Art Lovers

Each of these tiles is like a small world. And that’s what made this game so fun but also addictive. Every little detail has been built and studied by those who breathe that air. In fact, when the works or the money of one of the collectors run out, the game ends and whoever has invested their possessions better will be the winner. This really is my favorite game ever so you could sit here for hours telling yourself about it in every little detail. I suggest you rather go and see the video I dedicated to him. 

And if you liked this post dedicated to my card and board games from the art world, take a look at the my YouTube channel so you don’t miss the next videos related to art, travel and the market. Also I suggest you read my post about gifts for art lovers or the one on best magazines in Italy. 

Thanks and see you next time!