M.C. Escher Biography and Life
Encountering M.C. Escher's art is an often confusing and somewhat dizzying task that leaves the viewer wondering where reality and impossibility meet. Born Maurits Cornelis Escher, M.C. Escher's biography has as much to do with mathematics, architecture and tessellations as art. Born in the Netherlands on June 17, 1898, he was one of the many prominent Dutch artists and created one of the most easily recognizable artistic styles, nearly unmatched by any others. With his distinct use of perception, corresponding shapes and impossible scenarios, Escher's artwork transports the observer in a world where gravity, time and the laws of physics are all relative.
M.C. Escher's father, George Arnold Escher, was a civil engineer, which might help explain his fascination with architecture and the inspirations to many of his images. From an early age Escher excelled at drawing and in 1919, he attended the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. While there, he studied under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquit, who was a highly accomplished graphic artist. Escher and de Mesquit would remain friends for years and it is largely due to Escher's overshadowing prominence that de Mesquit has for the most part, been forgotten. He left school in 1922 after gaining experience in drawing and woodcutting.
After leaving school in 1922, Escher spent the year travelling through Spain and Italy. He travelled back to Italy frequently in the following years he met and married his wife, Jetta Umiker in 1924. Once married, they lived in Rome until 1935, at which time Mussolini's political control became unbearable and they moved to Switzerland where they lived for two years. After their brief stay in Switzerland, they moved to Belgium and lived until January 1941 at which time World War II forced them to move once again, this time back to Escher's home country of the Netherlands where he would stay until his death in 1972 at the age of 73.
Escher's artwork is some of the most perplexing in its relation to reality. Some of his most well known images include Escher's Drawing Hands, Relativity, Ascending and Descending, Waterfall and his prospectively amazing self-portrait, Hand with Reflecting Sphere. Escher's pictures tend to depict imaginative scenarios that defy the laws of reality and deceive common perception. Escher created many of his artwork using lithographs and woodcuts. Escher often portrayed mathematical relationships between shapes, figures and space, often integrating mirror images of rings, cubes, cones, spheres and spirals. As we see in one of Escher's most compelling images, Sky and Water I, which portrays a series of birds and fish that appear to gradually morph into the other by filling the space between each of their respective image, Escher often explored connecting figures using black and white to develop the perspective of different dimensions.
At first glance, Escher's image Ascending and Descending appears like a somewhat strange, though for the most part normal scene of an elaborate structure with stairs and people mingling about. However, upon further study of the image, what looks plausible is really anything but. The structure seems to be something like an apartment building or large mansion with a small square courtyard in the middle, surrounded by the four outlying walls. On top of the building are people walking on stairs around the perimeter of the open courtyard. Although at first appearance it looks like a somewhat odd (why would people be walking around in circles on top of a building?) yet nothing impossible, upon further inspection you will notice the improbability of the scenario as the stairs are all ascending, or descending, in the same direction. Escher creates this illusion using perception and dimension. The viewer should pay close attention to Escher's use of space and his ability to create the relative representation of distance. A clear example of this is how Escher portrays the length of the stairs. The set of stairs coming from the spire to the perspective forefront of the image contrasted to its perpendicular set of stairs is noticeably longer; and then difference in length is not just perspective, but the number of stairs is actually different. Escher's ability to disregard common laws and spatial boundaries provide a perplexing scenario in picture Ascending and Descending.
Another one of his most famous prints is Escher's Drawing Hands. The lithograph depicts a paradoxical image of two hands drawing each other into existence. Through acute details and precise shadowing effects, Escher is able to give the impression that the impossible is possible. The image was first printed in January 1948 and continues to have a profound influence on perception and paradox. Drawing Hands is one of Escher's most widely known art prints that clearly define his complex depiction of reality.
M.C. Escher's Waterfalls is probably his most well known images. The scene depicts a paradoxical image of flowing water. At first glance, the image seems to make sense. However, the viewer will quickly notice that the water must travel against gravity, flowing upstream, for this picture to make sense. The water, after taking a few sharp jogs finally cascades down through a waterfall to the water's origin. It is a cyclical image of paradox, common to many of Escher's art prints. The perspectives are dizzying, confusing and overwhelming. Staring at the water flow it is as if you could make it make sense, but upon further thinking, you realize there is no way it is a possible situation. The dimensions and perspectives of the waterfall play tricks on the mind.
M.C. Escher's father, George Arnold Escher, was a civil engineer, which might help explain his fascination with architecture and the inspirations to many of his images. From an early age Escher excelled at drawing and in 1919, he attended the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. While there, he studied under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquit, who was a highly accomplished graphic artist. Escher and de Mesquit would remain friends for years and it is largely due to Escher's overshadowing prominence that de Mesquit has for the most part, been forgotten. He left school in 1922 after gaining experience in drawing and woodcutting.
After leaving school in 1922, Escher spent the year travelling through Spain and Italy. He travelled back to Italy frequently in the following years he met and married his wife, Jetta Umiker in 1924. Once married, they lived in Rome until 1935, at which time Mussolini's political control became unbearable and they moved to Switzerland where they lived for two years. After their brief stay in Switzerland, they moved to Belgium and lived until January 1941 at which time World War II forced them to move once again, this time back to Escher's home country of the Netherlands where he would stay until his death in 1972 at the age of 73.
Escher's artwork is some of the most perplexing in its relation to reality. Some of his most well known images include Escher's Drawing Hands, Relativity, Ascending and Descending, Waterfall and his prospectively amazing self-portrait, Hand with Reflecting Sphere. Escher's pictures tend to depict imaginative scenarios that defy the laws of reality and deceive common perception. Escher created many of his artwork using lithographs and woodcuts. Escher often portrayed mathematical relationships between shapes, figures and space, often integrating mirror images of rings, cubes, cones, spheres and spirals. As we see in one of Escher's most compelling images, Sky and Water I, which portrays a series of birds and fish that appear to gradually morph into the other by filling the space between each of their respective image, Escher often explored connecting figures using black and white to develop the perspective of different dimensions.
At first glance, Escher's image Ascending and Descending appears like a somewhat strange, though for the most part normal scene of an elaborate structure with stairs and people mingling about. However, upon further study of the image, what looks plausible is really anything but. The structure seems to be something like an apartment building or large mansion with a small square courtyard in the middle, surrounded by the four outlying walls. On top of the building are people walking on stairs around the perimeter of the open courtyard. Although at first appearance it looks like a somewhat odd (why would people be walking around in circles on top of a building?) yet nothing impossible, upon further inspection you will notice the improbability of the scenario as the stairs are all ascending, or descending, in the same direction. Escher creates this illusion using perception and dimension. The viewer should pay close attention to Escher's use of space and his ability to create the relative representation of distance. A clear example of this is how Escher portrays the length of the stairs. The set of stairs coming from the spire to the perspective forefront of the image contrasted to its perpendicular set of stairs is noticeably longer; and then difference in length is not just perspective, but the number of stairs is actually different. Escher's ability to disregard common laws and spatial boundaries provide a perplexing scenario in picture Ascending and Descending.
Another one of his most famous prints is Escher's Drawing Hands. The lithograph depicts a paradoxical image of two hands drawing each other into existence. Through acute details and precise shadowing effects, Escher is able to give the impression that the impossible is possible. The image was first printed in January 1948 and continues to have a profound influence on perception and paradox. Drawing Hands is one of Escher's most widely known art prints that clearly define his complex depiction of reality.
M.C. Escher's Waterfalls is probably his most well known images. The scene depicts a paradoxical image of flowing water. At first glance, the image seems to make sense. However, the viewer will quickly notice that the water must travel against gravity, flowing upstream, for this picture to make sense. The water, after taking a few sharp jogs finally cascades down through a waterfall to the water's origin. It is a cyclical image of paradox, common to many of Escher's art prints. The perspectives are dizzying, confusing and overwhelming. Staring at the water flow it is as if you could make it make sense, but upon further thinking, you realize there is no way it is a possible situation. The dimensions and perspectives of the waterfall play tricks on the mind.
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