DEFENDING1

M.C. Escher has become one of the most recognizable artists of the past 50 years. He is world renown for his graphic representation of art. Not only this, but many have said he was a mathematician in hiding. Even Escher himself made the quote “For me it remains an open question whether my work pertains to the realm of mathematics or to that of art.”

   Mauritus Cornelis Escher started art very early in his life. In elementary and secondary school he made failing marks in everything but art. In 1907 at age eight, he began learning carpentry and linoleum cutting. This early interest would later emerge in some of his most recognizable pieces. He went to several schools to pursue his interest in art, such as the Higher Technology School in Delft . One of Escher’s biggest influences was Jessurun de Mesquita, who was a teacher of his at the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts. After seeing some of his art, Mesquita urged Escher to pursue that career.

   M.C. Escher presented many works of art in the following years that inspired many others and showed his amazing views of the world and nature. Many of his prints were of his surroundings, which were mostly based in Italy. “Waterfall” shows how he incorporated nature in his art and how his view on nature was. In it, it shows water flowing in an upwards motion, which in reality, would never occur. So, in a way, he incorporated the imaginary in to the real world. Another interesting fact about this particular work is that he made it knowing that it would cause the brain to make a three-dimensional object out of a two-dimensional projection.

   Although Escher’s work didn’t become popular until the 1950s, no one has proven such remarkable ability or understanding of art since then. Escher affected and changed the meaning of art to something much deeper. He put all his emotions and common sense in to his works. He was amazing!

   Many people know of M.C. Escher as an artist, and that is all. But if one looks deeper into the art of M.C. Escher, they will see that math is woven in to every part of his life and his works.

   Some of Escher’s greatest admirers include mathematicians. Many mathematicians say that in Escher’s work there is an extraordinary visualization of mathematical principles. This is strange to some, because of Escher’s poor evaluations in school.

   Escher’s work encompasses two broad areas: the geometry of space and the logic of space. In many of his works, Escher uses inspiration from the mathematical ideas he read about. in books. These ideas included those of structures in plane and projective geometry and of non-Euclidean geometries. He was fascinated with paradox and “impossible” figures. One thing that Escher was amazed with was tesselations. He loved ones that include metamorphoses, where they broke free of the plane. “Reptiles” and “Development 1” are both examples of his intriguing tesselations.

   In “Reptiles”, the creatures seem to escape the two-dimensional page only to collapse back into the pattern again. The pattern used is a hexagonal pattern. “Development 1”, is an example of a tesselation that he uses reptiles in, but is on a square pattern. In this painting, you can trace the distortions that soon lead to the center of the pattern.
In many of Escher’s drawings he used reflections, translations and rotations to create new and interesting shapes. This effect can be both startling and beautiful. Polyhedras are shapes he was especially fond of. There are five types of polyhedras with similar polygonal faces. In “Four Regular Solids” he used all of these shapes. “Stars”, “Order and Chaos” and “Snakes” are some of his many works related to math.

   Through all the examples and facts that one could go through, it is evident that Escher’s work is deeply related to math. Escher jars us out of our comfortable habits and challenges us to look with a different view. This is what inspired mathematicians’ admiration for him. This “view” is one that lies at the back of all great mathematical discovery!