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Studio Art
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Introduction
I have been holiday shopping. The Haarlem Period
Maurits Cornelis (M.C.) Escher was born in the Netherlands in 1898, the
youngest of three boys. Escher wasn't particularly successful at school; in fact he never graduated from high school. His father was adamant he study architecture, which he began at the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem. But a favorite teacher influenced him to pursue his true love - graphic arts. His background in architecture seems to have had a lifelong influence on his work, as evidenced by his fascination with building construction and architectural details. While in school at Haarlem, Escher experimented with themes that would suffuse his later works: perspective, architecture, illusion, perception, and distortion. The woodcuts he did for a humorous booklet Easter Flowers exhibit several of these themes: mirror mages, crystals and polyhedral shapes, spheres, pools of water, and the ripples and distortions they cause. I came across a story describing him lying on the stone floor of a church, arms spread wide, studying his reflection and the building around him distorted in the round shiny candelabra above him. He enjoyed working on his projects, both his own and his school projects, saying that there were "so many ideas floating around in his head." This period of his work became known as his "Haarlem period." Interestingly, while Escher dealt with themes of distortion and illusion, he always preferred his work to represent reality, and he drew from actual observation. He felt that everything fascinating in the world around us is defined in realism: shapes, symbols, textures, and details are what make objects meaningful. Abstract figures had little meaning for viewers. His Love Affair With Italy Escher's time in Italy was the happiest period in his life. This is where he did his "real" work - his Italian landscapes. He was taken with Italy's natural beauty, and his artwork was highly inspired by his exposure to Italy. He spent his thirteen years in Italy sketching and recording everything he saw, everything that caught his eye, everything he found beautiful and evocative: from the trees and hills, the mountains, to the stone buildings and churches, the bun-shaped roofs, curved arches, solid stairways, open-air palazzos, to the colorful frescoes and tile mosaics. He would often pull out these drawings in later years, using them for inspiration and models for his work, and as remembrance of pleasant times .He was sometimes lonely while involved in his work, but happier than any other period of his life. He wrote many letters to his friends and family, and always kept a diary, thus leaving his admirers a wealth of information about himself. Italy is where he met his wife. March of 1923 found Escher still working hard and traveling around Italy. At the end of the month, a Swiss family took up residence at the hotel where he was staying. Over the next few months, he found himself drawn to the daughter of the family, Jetta Umiker. Escher traveled around Italy some more, and in August of 1923 held his first one-man show in Siena. He paid very little attention to this important milestone in his artistic career, for he was concentrating on Jetta. In mid-August he proposed to her; they decided to marry and live in Italy.
During his time in Italy, His Fascination With Plane Division
Next came a period in Escher's career when he delved into arranging an
amazing amount of animals into mosaic designs: "games" designed of Thus Escher created the work for which he is most famous: his interlocking mathematical designs. Black lizards growing from the paper surface and marching across to transform into gray lizards at the other end. Tiled fields floating to the sky to become flying white ducks. Night turning into day. He further experimented with reminiscences of his early work of the Haarlem period: distortions found in water, bubbles, and spheres. Then he played with perspective, creating buildings that at first glance seem totally plausible, but upon study reveal themselves to be impossibilities. The imaginings of a fertile and unique mind. Note here one of his first prints of an impossible perspective - carefully notice the windowsill. And here are two drawings - "Relativity"and "Waterfall" - popularized by a public fascinated with his vision. No one before or since has created work like that of Escher. Summary Escher never thought of himself as a mathematician, and while he enjoyed being in the company of scientists, he believed his only comparison to them was his intense study of the world around him. If he saw something that moved him, he had to draw it. Even if he couldn't sell that work, he still had to draw it. The majority of his work, that which involved plane division, was an experiment and source of personal fascination for him, something that helped him define a clean orderly place in the real world of distraction and chaos. In an interview he stated it was never meant for public consumption. Thus I believe he'd be highly amused to find his work today decorating calendars, ties, and puzzles. But oh so lucky for us who are endlessly fascinated by his exquisite drawings and unique designs. Resources: Film: The Life and Works of M.C. Escher. Acorn Media Publishing: Bethesda, MD, 1999. Biography: http://users.erols.com/ziring/escher_bio.htm Escher's Artwork: Story of Escher's first woodcut: http://www.worldofescher.com/reading/sstory1.html Tessellations: http://library.thinkquest.org/11750/eschpage/MathClass1.html http://fs.dai.net/ac/911566/E01.html http://www.etropolis.com/escher http://www.mindspring.com/~mc.escher/escher.html "Grasshopper" woodcut: http://users.erols.com/ziring/e-gh.jpg "Still Life and Street" woodcut: http://users.erols.com/ziring/e-strt.jpg "Fish and Frogs" wood engraving: http://users.erols.com/ziring/e-fshf.jpg Three Worlds lithograph: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Bunker/2569/ThreeWorlds.html Escher products: http://mathartfun.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/Bookindex.html Reprinted with the kind permission of the author
About the Author: Editorialist
Suzanne Hill publishes articles on the unique art of illustration on Suite101.
Creatively, Suzanne is in love with language, with learning, with reading
out loud, with reading to children. She's also passionate about the visual
arts, the history of art, the future of art, book illustration, illuminated
manuscripts, and calligraphy. Suzanne joined Suite101 to further explore
art and impart her fascination and knowledge to readers. Other interests
include drawing, painting, fiber arts, collage, papermaking, digital design,
writing poetry, taking day trips, spending time with her family, and being
active outdoors. Her work is mostly naturalistic, with a twist or perspective
to impart her personal vision. She enjoys the utter sense of satisfaction
she has upon finishing a piece of artwork that resonates in people's pleased
reactions, or writing a compelling story that touches a responding chord
in a reader's heart.
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Last
night I was in a bookstore, marveling at the array of wall calendars:
landscapes, animals, angels, artists. The one featuring M.C. Escher's
compelling work caught my eye. Further on, shelved with the books of crafts,
was a book with brightly-colored paper cutout and foldup "kaleidocycles"
of Escher's designs. 
children's
section, his drawings have been transcribed into coloring books. After
reading about his life and ideas, I believe Escher would find it difficult
to imagine that today his drawings are decorating calendars, paper kaleidoscopes,
T-shirts, and stickers!
Escher's
parents were wealthy, and while he was a child the family traveled frequently.
He was lucky that his parents supported him in his artistic endeavors.
It would be thirty years before he earned any income from his artwork.
Escher
completed his most 
