MC Escher

M. C. Escher

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcc56fRtrKU (Embed)

His Start in Art

• •Traveled
• to Italy and began drawing sketches of the trees and vistas.
• •Fascinated
• with structure and light
• •Paid
• careful attention to details of the roof shingles and the cobblestone path ways
• 

Slide 3

• In 1920 Escher enrolled in the School for Architecture and Design in
• Haarlem, studying graphic arts.
• Afterwards, he concentrated on landscapes and townscapes in Italy.
• He traveled widely, and visited Spain in June 1922. He was inspired by
• the Alhambra, a 14th
• century Moorish castle in Granada.
• He was fascinated by the geometric patterns of the tiles, but was
• disappointed by the lack of recognizable figures.
• 

Slide 4

• His works began to take on a more mathematical approach, and in 1945,
• they were featured in a science museum, not art.
• From 1944 onwards Escher became a surrealist, often creating impossible
• landscapes and expanding the division of the plane into three dimensions.
• His fame began to spread in the 1950’s, and he was inundated with
• requests to give lectures all over the world.
• 

Slide 5

• Escher was fascinated by topology, which had only began to be
• studied in his lifetime. He used what he knew to create the “impossible” etchings, such as Waterfall.
• The mathematical accuracy and the attention to details that Escher gave
• his works provided them with a highly believable sense of realism that sharply
• contrasts with the unreal aspects.
• 

Slide 6

• “What I give form to in daylight
• is only one per cent of what I have seen in darkness.”
• -Escher
• ”…to portray something that doesn’t exist, one must present it in a perfectly ordinary everyday way.”
• -Escher
• ”I try to bear witness that we are
• living in a beautiful, ordered world, and not in a chaos without standards, as
• it sometimes seems.”
• -Escher

Slide 7

• Escher died in 1972 at the age of 73. Over his lifetime, he made 448
• lithographs, woodcuts, and wood engravings, and over 2000 drawings and
• sketches. His art continues to amaze millions of people throughout the world
• today.
• 

Slide 8

• •Though
• the Moor Civilization was forbidden from using living creatures in their art,
• Escher took a great interest in using these figures
• •Used
• mainly birds, lions, and fish
•