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. ( )

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. ( )

Boek lang geleden aangeschaft. Intrigerende kunst, waar je lang op kunt studeren. ( )

There is not one thing about this book that is bad. I love the format, the thickness and weight, and I really enjoy that the story of Escher is included as well, its not all just pictures. However, that being said, it has a wonderful complete libary included of very high quality images of Eschers art. Escher is my favorite artist and I really believe that this book was one of the reasons he is so forefront in my mind. Thanks Mom for giving me this book when I was 11 years old. Its one I will hold on to.

Best book about Escher I own ( )