MC Escher: Ambiguous Or Phenominal?

Maurits Cornelius Escher, a Dutch artist was born in the Netherlands at Leeuwarden on June 17, 1898. As a child, Escher always had an intensely creative side and an ‘acute sense of wonder' . He often claimed to see shapes that he could relate to in the clouds. In school, Escher failed to shine in many of his subjects, but exhibited an early interest in both music and carpentry. Escher, however, developed a deep interest in printing techniques as a result of receiving good reports from respective art departments that had encouraged him to experiment.

Family aspirations that Escher would train as an architect were disappointed when he failed his final exams in history, constitutional organizations, political economies and book keeping, and as a result he never officially g

Since Escher has spent so much of his life working with the ideas and concepts behind his impossible viewpoints and unbelievable motifs, he is one of the most inspirational artists. For many years his art was neither understood nor respected by critiques and colleagues. His ideas for motifs have reached as far as children’s books to inspiring artists to recreate some of his work using Legos . Today, Escher’s work is not only well known and popular with the buying public, but is also highly respected by artists, mathematicians, and scientists.

Escher’s exquisite attention to detail is what really makes his work so interesting. The way he manipulates reality; both in his mind and on paper, brings a real feeling of life to every work. The perspective of each piece is always changing, with the viewpoint continually shifting from one, two, and three point. Therefore it’s difficult to fathom how Escher brilliantly manipulates each plane complete with fluidity. Had Escher become a great architect, it is a near certainty that the building designs would be unbelievable if not impossible to construct. If anything, the designs would most likely serve no purpose except to be looked at in amazement.

In June 1922, Escher visited Spain. While making the voyage, his interest in regular division was briefly revitalized. He traveled widely and visited many palaces and was inspired by a great number of both buildings and landscapes. One building that was to have an immense influence on his life was the Alhambra Palace in Grenada. It was here that Escher developed an interest in the work of Moorish artists. The beauty of the 14th century Moorish palace and in particular the decorative majolica tilings overwhelmed Escher. (Acorn Media) He copied the motifs of the tiles in his notebook and used them later in his prints. It was these patterns that tempted him to experiment with tessellations and dividing the plane. As a result of this inspiration, Escher preferred recognizable figures such as birds, bees, fish, etc., to the geometric patterns found in the tiles. He commented:

After a second visit to the Alhambra in 1936, a deep fascination with order and symmetry consumed him. Escher remarked that it was “...the richest source of inspiration I have ever tapped.” (Acorn Media) Extensive research and investigation culminated in 1941 with his first notebook Regular Division of the Plane with Asymmetric Congruent Polygons. This notebook was never meant for publication, only for background information to allow him to continue as a visionary artist. He had developed his own categorization system, which covered all the possible combinations of shape, color and symmetrical properties. (Schattschneider 91-100)

The works of M.C. Escher can be viewed in many different ways, much of his work can be viewed not only in one direction, but if you change the direction in which you view his pieces, a whole new aspect of

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