Immagine dell'autore.

Sull'Autore

Opere di F. H. Bool

Berlijn-Amsterdam 1920-1940 : wisselwerkingen (1982) — A cura di — 8 copie

Opere correlate

Koen Wessing (1993) — A cura di — 13 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Data di nascita
1947
Sesso
male
Nazionalità
Netherlands

Utenti

Recensioni

Maybe you've heard of M. C. Escher, the famous woodblock artist known for his Italian landscape prints? Don't associate him with landscapes? There's a fascinating story here.

Escher was born on June 17th, 1898, in the Netherlands. He did poorly in school, but excelled at woodblock print, and was already producing compelling material by his early twenties.

When Escher was 23, he set off for Italy, a landscape with which he quickly became enamored. During the first decade-and-a-half of his professional life as a print maker, he was known for his Italian landscapes.

All of this changed in Escher's mid thirties. First, visited the Alhamba (a 13th-Century Islamic palace in Spain) for his second time and became entranced by the "field patterns" in the ornamentation.

With WWII impending, Escher left Italy (to Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland). He says, "I found the outward appearance of landscape and architecture less striking...Thus I felt compelled to withdraw from...illustrating of my surroundings...bringing my inner vision into being."

When Escher was 40, his father died. From this point forward, Escher's distinctive style comes to the fore, and with it, the renown he is now associated with, in contrast with his earlier period dominated by landscape art.

Bruno Ernst, a teacher of mathematics, has categorized Escher's later works into seven domains:
1. Penetration of worlds
2. The illusion of space
3. The regular division of the plane
4. Perspective
5. Regular solids and spirals
6. The impossible
7. The infinite

Personally, I am most fascinated with Escher's depiction of what architect Christopher Alexander would refer to as "deep interlock," or what Escher saw as "interpenetration." For example, "Three World," in which we can simultaneously view the fish, the leaves, and the trees.

This also becomes apparent in Escher's "field patterns." In these images, there is no "negative space," as each "figure" is surrounded by the "ground" of another, equally engaging figure. Alexander refers to this concept as "positive space."

Tragically, despite his exposure to the Alhambra, Escher failed to realize that his art fell within a rich and storied craft stretching back at least a millennium. “I have often wondered why, in their decorative zeal, the designers of patterns such as these [at the Alhambra] never, as far as I know, went beyond abstract motifs to recognizable representation.”

Whereas Escher saw his work as contributing to a narrative arc in a progression of art from geometric figures to realistic depictions, Alexander deftly articulates the exact opposite thesis in his masterwork on carpets—that such a trend represents the degeneration of an art form.

Questions of generation and degeneration aside, we can all agree that Escher's work is playful. I first fell in love with his work as a child, and much of his material has the spark of fantasy and magic.

A few notes on the book:

It isn't quite a biography. The editors cover the first part of Escher's life in what you might refer to as a biography, but then the book moves into letters exchanged an essays. Although the letters are interesting, and would make for good appendices, the quality of the description of Escher's life suffers as a result of them becoming the primary narrative.

It is interesting to reflect on the fact that, for Escher, form was far more important than color. As a result, it isn't surprising he chose printmaking as opposed to, say watercolor.
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
willszal | 5 altre recensioni | Mar 11, 2024 |
Impressive large format book with excellent reproductions of Escher's work. Includes extensive biographical information about Escher and his father, an engineer by profession. There is an essay by Bruno Ernst, presumably about the mathematical aspects of Escher's impossible figures or of his tessellations. Hard to read all at one go because it is so large and unwieldy.
 
Segnalato
themulhern | 5 altre recensioni | Sep 6, 2016 |
Boek lang geleden aangeschaft. Intrigerende kunst, waar je lang op kunt studeren.
 
Segnalato
jsplatvoet | 5 altre recensioni | Dec 6, 2009 |

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Autori correlati

F. Wierda Editor
Kees Broos Contributor
Paul Blom Editor
Joop Reyngoud Photographer
J.R. Kist Contributor
M. C. Escher Illustrator
Bruno Ernst Contributor
Richard Schneider Contributor
H.L.C. Jaffé Contributor
Kitty Zijlmans Contributor
Simon Koster Contributor
Clemens von Gleich Contributor
John Steen Contributor
Eva van Schaik Contributor
Frank Gribling Contributor
M.H. Würzner Contributor
Kees van Wijk Contributor
Ellen Jansen Contributor
Nini Jonker Contributor
Chris Rehorst Contributor
H. A. M. Snelders Contributor
H. van Galen Last Contributor
Jan de Vries Contributor
K. Schippers Contributor
Ben Albach Contributor
Marjan Boot Contributor
Nico J. Brederoo Contributor
H. W. von der Dunk Contributor
Jan Fontijn Contributor
Hans Mulder Contributor
Inge Polak Contributor
Geurt Imanse Contributor
Juliette Roding Contributor
John Sillevis Contributor
Jacques Klöters Contributor
Evert van Uitert Contributor
Leo Ross Contributor
Sebastian Haffner Contributor
Ulrich Dunker Contributor
Joke Hofkamp Contributor
Plym Peters Translator
Tony Langham Translator

Statistiche

Opere
23
Opere correlate
1
Utenti
710
Popolarità
#35,709
Voto
4.2
Recensioni
11
ISBN
23
Lingue
2

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