“So let us then try to climb the mountain, not by stepping on what is below us, but to pull us up at what is above us, for my part at the stars; amen” – M.C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher, aka M.C. Escher, was born in 1898 and, he lived to the well age of seventy-four years old. He passed away in 1972. He was one of the world’s most famous graphic artists. Although he started off as an aspiring architect, his teacher, Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita saw some of his drawings and linoleum cuts and encouraged him to pursue graphic art (mcescher.com). Some of his most popular pieces to the public would probably be Relativity, Ascending and Descending, Reptiles, Hand with Reflecting Sphere, and Drawing Hands. He was known for combining and merging art, science and mathematics (Emmer). He loved using transformations in his work along with a strong use of symmetry (Schattschneider). By the use of mathematical design and the use of the imagination of science and other dimensions, he successfully created some true masterpieces.
M.C. Escher loved playing with architecture, perspective, and impossible spaces (mcescher.com). He traveled all throughout Europe discovering new ideas and creating countless sketches. To be exact, throughout his life he created “448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and over 2000 sketches…[and] total of 137 Regular Division Drawings .” (mcescher.com). And, much of his sketches across Europe (mostly in Rome and Italy) contributed to the final pieces he created and are so well known for. While traveling through Spain, he became interested with “the regular Division of the Plane” (mcescher.com) and this strongly started influencing his work of art. This is also known as “the concept of tessellation” (Starger). This is where his continuing of animal patterns came from (Schattschneider). Some examples of this would be his puzzle-interlocking birds, fish, and lizards. (There will be some of these types of work displayed and discussed below in my blog.)
Escher was an influence to many. One artist, Bill Griffith an underground artist (aka ‘Zippy the Pinhead) has taken his talent of draftsmen and has used Escher’s transformations in his own work (Starger). There have been many other artists who have paid homage to him and these can actually be viewed in various places around the world. Most of these homages do take place in Europe, however. But, many of these artists who have contributed to these events would include: Valentina Barrucci, Jos De Mey, and Makoto Nakamura. In this homage to him, these artist took visions or topics that were related with M.C. Escher and then applied that to the art work they created and put on display. Many ranged from trying to mimic a particular piece to creating a collage that incorporated themes of math, science and symmetry (Emmer). According to Michele Emmer, the author of “Homage To Escher”, “[Escher], for a great part of his life, was an “attractor” who inspired connections among mathematicians, physicists, crystallographers and experts of visual perception.” He truly was an amazing artist.
In the artwork displayed below, I am trying to bring all the different types of M.C. Escher’s work and make it known to everyone on how amazing he was. Most of all his work originated from his sketches, but he then transferred them to wood cuts and lithographs. Below are some samples of his work. I chose a variety from the categories of Mathematical, Symmetry, Impossible Constructions, and Transformation prints, along with the different media he used. These were the most popular categories he used when creating his art and I hope I am able to display them with information and the respect M.C. Escher’s work deserves.
As quoted by the M.C. Escher Foundation:
“His art continues to amaze and wonder millions of people all over the world. In his work we recognize his keen observation of the world around us and the expression of his own fantasies. M.C. Escher shows us that reality is wondrous, comprehensible, and fascinating.”
Transformations:
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Cycle, May 1938. Lithograph 475mm x 279mm
This particular work of art illustrates one of M. C. Escher’s transformation prints created in 1938. Since this piece was created by lithography, Escher has to first draw the picture onto a surface, such as stone, using a tusche and then go through the several steps, like acid solution treatment and inking the stone for printing (Getlein, 189). By creating different texture using the tusche he was able to have the desired shading he wanted to give the print depth between the black and white contrasts. You can see these shades of black and white and how they create the depth of the three-dimensional shapes of boxes.
As you can clearly see the print focuses on the repetition of the little man running down the stairs then turning into these geometric shapes that also flow from the stacked block shortly above. Escher was known for this type of design. He used his mathematical design of geometric shapes to derive this image. “In the print the pattern of the rhombus shapes is interpreted both as a flat terrace paving and as a three-dimensional staking of boxes.” (Schattschneider).
Most of his buildings he used in his pieces came from the architectural influences of the building he fell in love with where he lived in Italy (Stargers). The rounded tops in the architecture fascinated him (Schattschneider). While living in Castrovalva, he loved the scenery of the close up building and the far away landscaping (mcescher.com). You can see how this contributed to this work of art. Escher also had many sketch books full of different geometric shapes creating patterns and it is thought that the shape the little man takes in the bottom of the print was derived from one of these sketches in his notebooks. Like in most of his work he demonstrates the division of planes through tessellation. This is the interlocking of the shapes at the bottom portion of this print. Another influence of this piece was through George Polya, who wrote an academic paper on plane symmetry and came from his tile labeled C3 from this article (Schattschneider).
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Reptiles, 1943 Lithograph 385mm x 334mm
This transformation piece shows many dynamics of Escher’s talent. It is a mixture between the transformation of three dimensional to two dimensional reptiles and his use of the inter-locking symmetry he is so well known for. It might not be so obvious in this particular work of art, but there is also evidence of geometric shaping. Escher loved incorporating all of this in his art work, but not all of his pieces had all three how Reptile did.
First, we can focus on the rough draft look of the drawing on the paper provided in the whole piece. It looks as if Escher is actually in the middle of working on a design and right before his eyes, the reptiles come to life. If you look closely, you can see the octagons on the paper, which Escher used to create such perfectly symmetrical pieces (Schattschneider, 35). This is how he was able to perform his tessellated patterns, also known as his “regular divisions of the planes” (21).
Now with this transformation piece, Escher shows how these three dimensional reptiles still perfectly inter-lock with the two dimensional reptiles. There is a sense of symmetrical balance created with this three dimensional look. Symmetrical balance is when “forms of a composition mirror each other across a central axis.” (Getlein, 119). The balance here is the off sets of the book in the top corner and the cactus plant in the bottom corner. Also, the way the reptiles are walking in a circular motion gives the sense of balance throughout the art piece. I am not sure if Escher was consciously doing this or if this is just something I have picked up on by taking an art class. But, I did find this interesting to point out.
Impossible Constructions:
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Relativity 1953 Lithograph. 294mm x 282mm
This is another lithograph created by M. C. Escher. Like I mentioned before, in order to produce a lithograph many times the artist has to draw it first by using either a grease crayon or a tusche (Geltein, 189). Also, lithographs are considered a planographic process because unlike relief, it is on a flat surface (189). Therefore, Escher had to draw this out on the stone surface before printing it out. It looks to me that this must have been a very tedious and time consuming piece due to all the tiny stokes that gives the walls such detailed texture. This particular piece comes from Escher’s impossible construction collection. It is pretty obvious why that is.
This is one of my favorite pieces from M. C. Escher and one of his most popular. It leaves an optical illusion since to the viewer. People are coming from every which way; ascending and descending stairs from all angles and from vertical and horizontal planes. He uses a great variation of shading to trick you on even which way the sun of coming in to illuminate the inside, or outside, of the building.
I believe this art work was a strong influence from Escher’s architecture knowledge. He loved taking reality and bending it to all possible imagination the human mind can create. Some people considered Escher a master of combining the mind’s illusion to the concept of reality (Emmer). By using all the qualities of high tone and low tone shading, it gives the since of depth to the image, along with making the figures in the foreground larger than that of the one in the background.
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Waterfall, 1961 Lithograph. 300mm x 380mm
Here is an example of one of M.C. Escher’s impossible constructions. Some of his most popular work of art comes from this category. At first glance one might not understand why this would be an impossible construction, but as you look at it more closely it makes more sense. This lithograph is showing the water flowing uphill to the waterfall, and the tower to the left seems to be stemming from the same pillars. Now, this is impossible if the constructed river is zig zaging with perfect 90 degree angles. These areas would line up to extent a tall tower. And the more you look at it, the more it plays tricks on your eyes.
Like I mentioned in my introduction above, Escher traveled throughout Europe and produced over 2000 sketches and he became fascinated with the architecture of the buildings there; primarily Rome and Italy. The Waterfall is an example of him using these sketches to create a wonderful image. The background of this picture comes from his Italian period (mcescher.com). He loved the landscaping in Italy and as you can see, incorporated here very well.
The way Escher combined geometric shaping, architecture, perspective, and impossible spaces really brought a sense of unity and variety. Unity and variety exist on a spectrum where most artist strives to find the right balance where there is “…sufficient visual unity enlivened by sufficient variety.” (Getlein, 116). With this image, Escher has this large structure in the foreground created with what looks to be adobe, brick, and stone. Then he provides a shingle roof house alongside the well-known dome roofing seen in Italy. This brings a sense of variety and then gets tied in with the background scenery unifying the image as a whole. This is another one of my favorite pieces created by M.C. Escher.
Symmetry:
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Fish (No. 55) 1942 Ink & Watercolor
This particular art work of M.C. Escher was created by using ink and watercolor. Fish No. 55 is a part of his symmetry collection. He used his triangle-system he had in his sketch books to achieve perfect symmetry (Schattschneider, 158). He would start off the paper with it covered in this geometric shape and then proceed to draw in the images of the fish. In most of Escher art work he is known for his black and whites; however, when it came to his symmetry he strongly believed that color was a part of this. He believed that the contrast in color had to be balanced as well, so he made sure his art had sufficient contrast and equal brightness in the color (Schattschneider, 98).
As you can clearly see in Fish No. 55, he did just that. He used very bright colors of blue, red, and yellow, and set them in a perfect pattern as to not upset the balance of symmetry made here. I believe by starting of this piece with the series of geometric triangles had to have come from his background in architecture. I love how he incorporated his knowledge of mathematics in his art to create such eye appealing products. Many artists found him as a failure with the use of color, but mathematicians and crystallographers “marveled at the symmetric arrangement of color in [this] design.” (Schattschneider, 114).
I really enjoy his colored pieces; this one in particular. The vibrant coloring he used here really grabbed my attention and is why I chose it. I am not sure if he purposely used primary colors for the contrasting between colors, but I could see why he would in an artistic way of meaning. I know fish are sometimes viewed as a kind of primate, or symbol of the beginning in life/religion, but in the eyes of the artist so are these specific colors.
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Pessimist-Optimist (No. 63), 1944 India Ink, Colored Pencil, White Paint
182mm x 284mm
This is a part of Escher’s symmetry collection. Escher was very well-known for these types of art work. This particular pieces was made with India ink, colored pencil, and white paint. As you can see Escher takes the use of rhythm in most of his symmetry pieces. Many artists use rhythm to structure the viewer’s experience when looking at the work of art (Getlein, 134). I believe Escher is doing just that with the Pessimist-Optimist. It takes a minute to understand what it is we are actually looking at, which I believe is what Escher is wanting.
Escher loved incorporating his famous regular division of the plane. “He learned that there are only a few basic geometric motions which preserve exact shape and thus relate a single motif to each congruent copy which adjoins it in a repeating pattern.” (Schattschneider, 31). Mathematics was a huge influence to Escher when creating his symmetry pieces. He always started his artwork with these geometric shapes and then filled them in with these interlocking creations.
Escher also believed in the importance of contrast in graphic art. He believed that the paper he worked on should be gray, or at least gray bordered to not take away the equality of black and white contrast of images like this one (Schattschneider, 99). He found this extremely important when doing art work of symmetry. Every part of the painting had to balance out and have the equality throughout in order for true symmetry to be achieved.
Mathematical:
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Rippled Surface, 1950 Linoleum cut 320mm x260mm
This particular art piece is a linoleum cut design in black and grey-brown, and it was printed from two blocks. Linoleum cut is similar to a wood cut in terms of how the artist has to cut his impressions in to linoleum just like he did wood, yet linoleum is softer (Getlein, 181). This is a type of relief printing method; the ink lies on top of the raised areas and not in the grooves cut out of the surface (Getlein, 176). One can imagine why then this print would take two blocks instead of one in order to make the contrast of the different colors and impressions. Even in his non-vibrant colored art, he still made sure to create that balance of contrast in shades. As you can see here, there is that equality that is appealing to the human eye.
This is considered a part of Escher’s mathematical collection. He liked to incorporate these spherical shapes in his pieces to create a challenge of mathematical proportions (Starger). This was seen as difficult to achieve, but as you can see Escher was successful. He had to make his line work very precise when carving into the linoleum to where they spherical areas would line up perfectly with the straight edge lines.
As I mentioned in early text, while traveling all through Italy, where he settled in Rome, he was fascinated by the scenery. The trees in this particular piece are the same trees he used in another woodcut called “Pineta of Calvi” (mcescher.com). This came from trees he sketched while on his travels around Italy.
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Balcony, 1945 Lithograph. 234mm x 297mm
This comes from Escher’s mathematical collection. As you can see, it is a picture of a village yet, it has a sphere-like bubble in the middle of it. Escher created this piece through the process of lithograph. Like I have mentioned before, this is a planographic process. This process depends on the “principle that oil and water do not mix.” (Geltein, 189). One can imagine how Escher must have drawn this independently before creating it again one the stone for the transference of the lithograph process.
This piece might not look like a mathematical based image, but contrary to one’s belief, in order to create a perfectly spherical shape a lot of math is required in successfully completing this. Escher loved incorporating math in his art work, which is one of the reasons I find his work so fascinating. By doing this, “he decided that tiling the surface of a sphere to form a continuous, three-dimensional tessellation was the most perfect way to express infinity.” (Emmer). By using anamorphic techniques he was able to achieve this without changing the shape to the paper (Emmer).
This art piece is also an example of how the travels through Europe, primarily Spain and Italy, influenced the scenes Escher liked to create. He had fallen in love with the architectural details of the “monumental buildings from unusual vantage points.” (Schattschneider, 5). During his time of traveling country sides, his architectural background gave him the appreciation of how these building and villages were put together up on hillsides and he could see the “Regular Division of Plane” that were created by these building constructed so close together, which had him become obsessed with it and uses this in most of his pieces (mcescher.com).
Most Popular:
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Rind, 1955 Wood Engraving and Woodcut. 235mm x 345mm
This particular work of art is actually an image of M. C. Escher’s wife, Jetta. From what I understand by the description, Escher created this as a wood engraving and a wood cut. He used the colors of black, blue-grey and grey, and it was printed from four blocks (mcescher.com). Through preforming a woodcut, Escher would have drawn this image on a piece of wood and then proceed to cut gauges out so where the ink would rest on top as a relief printing method (Getlein, 177). The wood engraving process is a lot like the woodcut, but instead of going with the grain the artist cuts across the grain (180). This obviously must have taken him a lot of time and patience. He used the contrast of colors to help create the depth and three-dimensional effect in the ribbon shape form of her face. Escher also uses the clouds as a pattern in the background to help pull the image of his wife closer to us. According to Schattschneider, the author of “Visions of Symmetry”, Escher claimed the importance of having images in the background of art work because leaving it plane is unnatural; like looking at the sky with no clouds of color for the eye to enjoy (99). I feel the clouds in this particular image does in fact help it by capturing the floating feel of the ribbon through the sky, creating an almost dreamlike feel to it.
This image was said to have been “…inspired by H.G. Well’s novel, ‘The Invisible Man’ and the 1933 movie adaptation…” and brings a “dreamlike power or Escher’s creations that a sense of déjà vu infuses even the works that one has never seen.” (Starger).
Courtesy of mcescher.com
Magic Mirror, Lithograph. 445mm x 280mm
This work of art comes from Escher’s most popular collection. Here you can see how he is taking a mirror and using it to transform this winged lion from a three-dimensional object to a two-dimensional object. “Escher refers to the Lewis Carroll story Through the Looking Glass” when explaining this piece ( Schattschneider, 301). He goes on to explain how these winged lions emerge from the magic mirror and “freed itself form its image….transposing its reflection into reality”, much like the trick Alice displayed with her “Looking Glass World.” (301). Once again, like most of his work during this time period, he has these winged lions gradually become a two-dimensional jigsaw puzzle of enter-locking animals creating a horizontal plane.
He gives the lithograph depth by putting the two-dimensional figures in the foreground while having the three-dimensional figures towards the back. By doing this, Escher has created a three-dimensional feel to the lithograph and he makes the mirror look as if it does in fact rise up from the paper. Even the sphere balls help give this illusion of three-dimensional feel. Escher was notorious for creating these enter-locking animals trough out his history of art work, and here is a creative way of showing how they possibly have come to life. I feel that he perhaps decided to create a picture like this to help the viewer, or audience, understand how he came about in creating these “jigsaw” like pictures. I also like how he refers to this piece as a replica of Alice and the Looking Glass; producing a creature coming form an imaginary world and finding itself in reality transforming to a literal meaning.
Works Cited
Emmer, Michele. “Homage To Escher.” Leonardo 33.1 (2000): 3-16. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
Getlein, Mark. Living with Art. Tenth ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
“M.C. Escher.” – The Official Website. Web. 28 Sept. 2014. <http://www.mcescher.com/>.
Schattschneider, Doris, and M. C. Escher. Visions of Symmetry: Notebooks, Periodic Drawings, and Related Work of M.C. Escher. New York: W.H. Freeman, 1990. Print.
Starger, Steve. “Sly Hand Of M.C. Escher.” Art New England 31.6 (2010): 14. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
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