The
Dutch artist Maurits C. Escher (1898-1972) was a draftsman, book
illustrator, tapestry designer, and muralist, but his primary
work was as a printmaker. Born in Leeuwarden, Holland, the son
of a civil engineer, Escher spent most of his childhood in
Arnhem. Aspiring to be an architect, Escher enrolled in the
School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem. While
studying there from 1919 to 1922, his emphasis shifted from
architecture to drawing and printmaking upon the encouragement
of his teacher Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. In 1924 Escher
married Jetta Umiker, and the couple settled in Rome to raise a
family. They resided in Italy until 1935, when growing political
turmoil forced them to move first to Switzerland, then to
Belgium. In 1941, with World War II under way and German troops
occupying Brussels, Escher returned to Holland and settled in
Baarn, where he lived and worked until shortly before his death.
The main subjects of Escher's early art are Rome
and the Italian countryside. While living in Italy from 1922 to
1935, he spent the spring and summer months traveling throughout
the country to make drawings. Later, in his studio in Rome,
Escher developed these into prints. Whether depicting the
winding roads of the Italian countryside, the dense architecture
of small hillside towns, or details of massive buildings in
Rome, Escher often created enigmatic spatial effects by
combining various -- often conflicting -- vantage points, for
instance, looking up and down at the same time. He frequently
made such effects more dramatic through his treatment of light,
using vivid contrasts of black and white.
After Escher left Italy in 1935, his interest
shifted from landscape to something he described as "mental
imagery," often based on theoretical premises. This was prompted
in part by a second visit in 1936 to the fourteenth-century
palace of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. The lavish tile work
adorning the Moorish architecture suggested new directions in
the use of color and the flattened patterning of interlocking
forms. Replacing the abstract patterns of Moorish tiles with
recognizable figures, in the late 1930s Escher developed "the
regular division of the plane." The artist also used this
concept in creating his Metamorphosis prints. Starting in the
1920s, the idea of "metamorphosis" -- one shape or object
turning into something completely different -- became one of
Escher's favorite themes. After 1935, Escher also increasingly
explored complex architectural mazes involving perspectival
games and the representation of impossible spaces.
The
Dutch artist Maurits C. Escher (1898-1972) was a draftsman, book
illustrator, tapestry designer, and muralist, but his primary
work was as a printmaker. Born in Leeuwarden, Holland, the son
of a civil engineer, Escher spent most of his childhood in
Arnhem. Aspiring to be an architect, Escher enrolled in the
School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem. While
studying there from 1919 to 1922, his emphasis shifted from
architecture to drawing and printmaking upon the encouragement
of his teacher Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. In 1924 Escher
married Jetta Umiker, and the couple settled in Rome to raise a
family. They resided in Italy until 1935, when growing political
turmoil forced them to move first to Switzerland, then to
Belgium. In 1941, with World War II under way and German troops
occupying Brussels, Escher returned to Holland and settled in
Baarn, where he lived and worked until shortly before his death.
