Maurits Cornelis Escher Dutch, 1898-1972

1. Maurits Cornelis Escher Dutch, 1898-1972 • Escher’s training was in "decorative arts", essentially textile and wallpaper design, and also in illustration, which made it difficult for them to be credited as a FINE artist. • Mathematicians and scientists loved his work, because of his tessellations and geometric distortions. Self Portrait, 1929

2. Escher took delight in a kind of deception, desiring his viewers to derive the same sensation as when entertained by a magician. His art is a journey of discovery where images appear and disappear into negative and positive space. Relativity, 1953, Lithograph

3. Before 1937 Escher's art was generally pictorial representations of objects and landscapes. He sketched and drew scenes that interested him for their beauty. Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Young Thrush 1917 Linoleum cutThe Borger Oak 1919 Linoleum cut White Cat 1919 woodcutHand with Fir Cone 1921 woodcut

4. In 1922 Escher traveled through Italy and Spain. He stated that this trip changed his life. He came back to Italy regularly in the following years until 1924, when he settled down in Rome and stayed there until 1935, when the political climate under Mussolini became unbearable. He moved from there to Switzerland, then Belgium and the Netherlands, which is where most of his important works were done. Street in Scanno, Abruzzi 1930 woodcut

5. After 1937 Escher became interested in regularity and mathematical structure, and the conflict found in every picture representing three-dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. Still Life and Street, 1937. This was Escher’s first print of an impossible reality.

6. Escher did not want anyone to read ulterior meanings into his work. When a spectator declared that the reptiles in a piece symbolized reincarnation, he flatly stated, "I have not attempted to depict anything mystic” Retiles, 1947, Lithograph

7. Until the '60s art critics showed little interest in Escher. He was not recognized as a fine artist and was generally ignored. It was academic mathematicians and physicists who responded to his art. They would use his drawings to illustrate advanced concepts. Gravitation, 1952, Lithograph & Watercolor

8. Hand with Reflecting Sphere, also known as Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror is one of Escher’s most famous works, first printed in 1935. • In the reflection, the hand holding the sphere is revealed to be Escher’s. It can appear that the hand holding the sphere is a left hand and the reflection is his right hand. Though, in reality, the mirror image of a left hand is a right hand.2 "Hand with Reflecting Sphere,"lithograph, 32 x 21.5 cm, 1935.

9. Escher explains, "Now isn't that a splendid round globe? Wrong! You are quite mistaken--it is completely flat. …Just satisfy yourself about this with the touch of your fingers over the paper--and feel how flat it really is. Drawing is deception; it suggests three-dimensions when there are but two! And no matter how hard I try to convince you about this deception, you persist in seeing three-dimensional objects."

10. By the late '60s Escher had been accepted as a fine artist. Critics acknowledged his compelling structure and the intellectual challenge of his art. They understood that above and below, right and left, near and far appear to be no more than relative and interchangeable at will. Escher helps us see new relationships between point, surface and spaces. His spatial worlds are both strange and possible. Ascending and Descending, 1960 Lithograph

11. WANT TO SEE MORE? Go to theOfficial M. C. Escher Website to see images we have used here, and many many more. Text is from: http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles1998/Articles0798/MCEscherA.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_with_Reflecting_Sphere