Maurits Cornelis Escher
(1898-1972) is one of the world's most famous graphic artists. His art is
enjoyed by millions of people all over the world, as can be seen on the many
web sites on the internet.
He is most famous for his
so-called impossible constructions, such as
Ascending and Descending:
and Relativity:
He became fascinated by the regular Division of the Plane, when he first visited the Alhambra, a fourteen century Moorish castle in Granada, Spain in 1922.
During the years in Switzerland and throughout the Second World War, he vigorously pursued his hobby, by drawing 62 of the total of 137 Regular Division Drawings he would make in his lifetime.
He would extend his passion for the Regular Division of the Plane, by using some of his drawings as the basis for yet another hobby, carving beech wood spheres.
Here are some examples of his Division of the Plane:
Sky and Water:
and Reptiles:
But he also made some wonderful,
more realistic work during the time he lived and traveled in Italy. Castrovalva for
example, where one already can see Escher's fascination for high and low, close
by and far away.
Castrovalva:
The lithograph Atrani,
a small town on the Amalfi Coast was made in 1931, but comes back in some of his future masterpieces, like Ascending and Descending.
Atari:
M.C. Escher made 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and
sketches during his lifetime. Like some of his famous predecessors, (Michelangelo, Leonardo da
Vinci, Dürer and Holbein), M.C. Escher was left-handed.
Apart from being a graphic
artist, M.C. Escher illustrated books, designed tapestries, postage stamps and
murals. He was born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, as the fourth and youngest
son of a civil engineer. After 5 years the family moved to Arnhem where Escher
spent most of his youth. After failing his high school exams, Maurits
ultimately was enrolled in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in
Haarlem.
After only one week, he informed
his father that he would rather study graphic art instead of architecture, as
he had shown his drawings and linoleum cuts to his graphic teacher Samuel
Jessurun de Mesquita, who encouraged him to continue with graphic arts.
After finishing school, he
traveled extensively through Italy, where he met his wife Jetta Umiker, whom he
married in 1924. They settled in Rome, where they stayed until 1935. During these
11 years, Escher would travel each year throughout Italy, drawing and sketching
for the various prints he would make when he returned home.
Many of these sketches he would
later use for various other lithographs and/or woodcuts and wood engravings, for
example the background in the lithograph Waterfall stems
from his Italian period.
Waterfall:
He played with architecture,
perspective and impossible spaces. His art continues to amaze millions of people all over the world. In his work we recognize his keen
observation of the world around us and the expressions of his own fantasies.
M.C. Escher shows us that reality is wondrous, comprehensible and fascinating.
http://www.mcescher.com/about/biography
