Maurice Cornelius Escher - MC Escher
MC ESCHER
"I play a tiresome game" - MC ESCHER
1. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish 2. No Apt Pupil 3.
The Creature In The Forest 4. Head In The Clouds 5. The Puzzler
6. Impossible Architect 7. On His Mind 8. Virtual Relativity 9.
A Rolling Stone 10. Wandering Enigma
1. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Maurice Cornelius
Escher, known to his friends and family as Mauk, was initially
set to be an architect. He was to attend the Higher Technical
School in Delft. But, his plans went asunder when he failed his
final exams in nearly all of his classes including history,
constitutional organization, political economy and bookkeeping.
His father later noted that Mauk drew and created a linocut of a
sunflower to comfort himself after the blunder. 2. No Apt Pupil
He was later able to retake the exams and entered the school in
Delft. It was here that Professor R.N. Roland Holst encouraged
him to try his hand at woodcuts and engraving versus
architecture. The legendary art of MC Escher had achieved its
planting. 3. The Creature In The Forest Not wanting to
disappoint his parents, Mauk continued with architectural
studies. However with poor grades Mauk had to find another
school in order to do so. He made a last ditch attempt at it at
the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts. Then a chance
meeting occurred with Samuel Jesserum de Mesquita, a graphic
arts teacher. It was a red-letter day for MC Escher aka Mauk. De
Mesquita convinced him that he would be much better suited for a
career in graphic arts than architecture. 4. Head In The Clouds
Where and when did Escher begin his methodical approach to his
life and art? Well, as a child Mauk had an intensely acute sense
of wonder. And like many children he would lie on his back and
gaze to the sky, seeing shapes in the clouds. With the strong
influence from his parents engineering background, it is no
wonder then that young Mauk began to see how these free floating
shapes could evolve and dissolve in the white pillowy vapor.
Tactile applications began to form in his mind making logic out
of random chaos. 5. The Puzzler He was often frustrated with his
lack of drawing ability and regarded his mathematical prowess as
insecure at best. However he developed his own categorization
system that covered all the possible combinations of shape,
color and symmetrical properties. By doing so, he had
unknowingly studied areas of crystallography for many years.
This was the groundwork for his patterns, known as tessellations.
Tessellate: to construct, pave, or decorate something with small
pieces such as stone or glass in order to give a mosaic effect.
6. Impossible Architect His most famous works of art often
depict enigmatic turns and twists that fold back onto
themselves. Ascending and Descending, Relativity and the
Transformation Prints, such as, Metamorphosis I, II and III, Sky
& Water and Reptiles which are among the most recognized of his
work. 7. On His Mind What would Escher think? How would he feel
about computer programs that can now automatically create the
intricate tessellations he slaved over for hours on end?
He often wrote to his son Arthur about the conundrums he faced
with his work, "God, I wish I could learn to draw better! It
takes so much effort and perseverance to do it well. Sometimes I
am close to delirium with pure nerves. It is really only a
question of battling on relentlessly with constant and, if
possible, merciless self-criticism. I think that making prints
the way I do it is almost only a matter of very much wanting to
do it well. For the most part, things like talent are mere
poppycock. Any schoolboy with a bit of aptitude might draw
better than I; but what is usually lacking is the unwavering
desire for expression, obstinacy gnashing its teeth and saying,
'Even though I know I cannot do it, I still want to do it.'"
Maybe he himself wouldn't have minded the aid of a computer in
concocting his elaborate creations. Most likely he would have
seen it as just another tool for bringing his visions to light.
8. Virtual Relativity However, he most likely would have felt
out of touch with his art. Like so many artists today, their art
is no longer tactile. It lacks mass and weight because it only
exists virtually on a computer screen. Escher adorned many of
his prints with the phrase, "eigen druk". The literal
translation means, "This print is drawn with my own hands". 9. A
Rolling Stone The lead singer of the Rolling Stones, Mick
Jagger, started a series of letters to Escher on New Year's Day
in 1969. Jagger wanted to use one of Escher's works on the
jacket of their newest LP, "Through the Past Darkly". Mick was a
huge fan of Escher, but Escher did not return the sentiment.
Escher was not a tame person, but he preferred classical music
to rock and roll. Due to his many obligations at the time,
Escher declined to provide Jagger with any designs for their
cover art. Much to Jagger's disappointment, the album was
released with a hexagonally designed cover-sleeve that was
influenced by Escher's "Verbum" image. 10. Wandering Enigma He
was constantly amazed at what other people would read into his
creations and would often debunk any kind of elaborate
explanations.
"I have never attempted to depict anything mystic; what some
people claim to be mysterious is nothing more than a conscious
or unconscious deceit! I have played a lot of tricks, and I have
had a fine old time expressing concepts in visual terms, with no
other aim than to find out ways of putting them on to paper."
Take a look at some of the art of MC Escher.