M.C. Escher. the Graphic Work

From impossible staircases to tessellated birds, Dutch artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972) crafted a unique graphic language of patterns, puzzles, and mathematics. Dense, complex, and structured by intricate principles, his work is at the same time decorative and playful, toying constantly with optic illusions and the limitations of sensory perception. For mathematicians and scientists, Escher is a mastermind. For hippies, he was the pioneer of psychedelic art. Born in Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands in 1898, Escher's early works focused on nature and landscapes, with regular exhibitions in Holland, and some international recognition. It was on a trip to the Alhambra Palace in Spain in the 1920s, however, that Escher found his niche. Sketching the patterns of the palace's Moorish architecture, Escher became captivated by the codependency of forms within and next to each other. Working mainly with lithographs and woodcuts, Escher went on to explore the relationships among shapes, figures, and space with a near-obsessive delight. He reveled in quirky vantage points, multiple perspectives, the transition from paper flatness to illusory volume, and intricate mathematical puzzles such as the Möbius strip, a seemingly infinite loop which twists and recoils on itself in a contortion of apparent physical impossibility. This introductory book taps into Escher's brilliant mind with key works from his restless investigation of image and perception. Along the way, you'll find fish morphing into birds, lizards crawling off the page, masterful reflections, infinite mazes, and some of the most mind-bending images of 20th-century art.

ISBN-13: 9783836529846

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Taschen America - LLC

Publication Date: 05-30-2016

Pages: 96

Product Dimensions: 8.50(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.50(d)

Series: Basic Art

M. C. Escher (Dutch 1898-1972) made relatively realistic art--landscapes, portraits--until his early middle age. Then, increasingly fascinated by the tension between two-dimensional representation and the mind's tenacious three-dimensional perception, he began to create prints and drawings in which realism collides with impossibility. Working alone, with no mathematics background, he produced "symmetry drawings" that graphically represented the phenomena of crystallography and foretold the concept of a fractal universe. He challenged the hegemony of so-called natural laws with renderings of courtyards where up and down lose their meaning; of structures that flout gravity and perspective, of abstract patterns that gradually metamorphose into wriggling, flapping beasts. These wildly ingenious new designs reflected the order and beauty Escher saw in a world that often seemed chaotic. Strangely logical manipulations of space, his works are slyly humorous visually stunning, and rigorously obedient to their own physics and perspectives. Escher's world is best enjoyed if you are willing to see from several viewpoints at once.