“The things I want to express are so beautiful and pure.” M. C. Escher
M. C. Escher
M. C. Escher – Early Years 0 Full name: Maurits Cornelis Escher 0 Birth date: June 17th, 1889 0 Birth town: Leeuwarden, the
Netherlands 0 Youngest son of five children 0 Moved to Arnhem at the age of five 0 1912 – 1918: Attended a public
high school in Arnhem
M. C. Escher – Middle Years 0 1918: Enrolled in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem with the
intention of preparing for a career as an architect. After only one week, Escher switched programs into graphic arts, under the instruction of de Mesquita. 0 After finishing school, he traveled extensively through Italy, where he met his wife Jetta
Umiker, whom he married in 1924. 0
Settled in Rome.
0 In 1926 his first son, George, was born. His second son, Arthur, was born in 1928.
M. C. Escher – Later Years 0 During the next 11 years, he
travelled throughout Italy and perfected his woodcut technique and learned the additional technique of wood engraving and lithography. 0 In 1938, his third son was born. 0 In 1941, Escher and his family
moved and settled in Baarn, Holland. 0 Escher died in Laren, where he
lived the last two years of his life, on March 27, 1972.
Escher Interview 0 M. C. Escher in his studio while he is making the Eye mezzotint
and being interviewed about his life and work.
http://www.mcescher.com/about/escher-at-work/
M. C. Escher 0 Played with architecture, perspective and impossible
spaces. 0 He was a graphic artist who played with woodcuts,
wood engravings, lithography's, and beech wood spheres. 0 Illustrated books, designed tapestries, postage stamps
and murals, among many other things.
Regular Division of the Plane 0
Congruent shapes in repeating patterns.
0 6 geometric regular divisions (fundamental forms of regular division of the plane):
• Parallelograms (Parallelogram) • Rectangles (Rechthoek) • Squares (Vierkant)
• Triangles (Driehoek) • 60o rhombuses (Ruit) • Regular hexagons (Zeshoek)
Regular Division of the Plane 0
4 geometric motions that preserve exact same shape (“isometry”): 0 0 0
Translation Rotation Glide-Reflection
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Reflection
Geometric Motions
First Pattern 0 Translation
Second Pattern 0 90o and 180o rotations
Third Pattern 0 90o and 180o rotations
Fourth Pattern 0 Translation and glide-reflection
Fifth Pattern 0 Translation, 90o rotation, glide-reflections
What transformations do you see?
Exploration with Regular Patterns in the Plane 0 Explored patterns with layers, overlapping motifs, moirĂŠ patterns, line
designs, and patterns of entwined circles. 0 Worked with regular division on three-dimensional surfaces, prints with
motifs of diminishing size, metamorphosis, form and contrast, dimension, tension between figure and ground, and the dynamic balance of opposites.
Diminishing Size Overlapping Carved Sphere
Entwined Circles
Work 0 Prints were born from a desire to give visual expression to
his thoughts.
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Art ideas where from things he saw around him.
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He drew broad concepts that one could observe, experience, and even feel, but which are impossible to capture fully in words. Work was used for ceiling art, book covers, tapestries, postal stamps and bank notes.
0 Most common use of Escher’s work by others is to provide
examples of regular division of the plane. They are studied and used by generations of students and their teachers. 0
“These patterns are complicated enough to illustrate clearly the basic concepts of translation and other symmetry, which are so often obscured in the clumsy arrays of little circles, pretending to be atoms, drawn on chalkboards.” MacGillavry
Famous Prints
Ascending and Descending – 1960 Lithograph
Relativity – 1953 Lithograph
Famous Prints
Metamorphosis I – Woodcut, 1937
Metamorphosis II – Woodcut, 1940
Metamorphosis III – Woodcut, 1967-68
Famous Prints
Sky and Water I – 1938
Reptiles – 1943 Lithograph
Famous Prints
Castrovalva – 1930 Lithograph
Facts and Quotes 0 0
During his lifetime, Escher made: 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings 0
Over 2000 drawings and sketches
“I believe that producing pictures, as I do, is almost solely a question of wanting so very much to do it well” M. C. Escher
“I could fill an entire second life with working on my prints” M. C. Escher
References Druick, D., Driver, E., & Naubert-Riser, C. (1975). The graphic work of M. C. Escher. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada for the National Museums of Canada. Locher, J. L. (1971). The world of M. C. Escher. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. Schattschneider, D. (2004). M. C. Escher: Visions of symmetry. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc. Stewart, B. (1983). The magic worlds of M. C. Escher. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada for the Corporation of the National Museums of Canada. Vermeilen, J. (1989). Escher on Escher: Exploring the infinite. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc.