"I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough"
M.C. Escher
Discovering the M.C. Escher exhibition during our trip to Museum of Fine Arts Houston was a delightful surprise. M.C. Escher, short for Maurits Cornelis Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist celebrated for his distinctive and mathematically influenced artworks. Prior to this exhibition, we were only familiar with his mind-bending optical illusions. However, this exhibition unveiled the full narrative of his artistic journey.
We learned about how, as a young student, he tirelessly sketched a simple motif in his notebook. This modest beginning eventually evolved into an entire series exploring symmetry motifs and the concept of metamorphosis within his art world.
This thorough exhibition offers a comprehensive look at his journey as one of the world's most celebrated artists, presenting his diverse range of artistic mediums. It explores the history of his art, encompassing portraits, uniquely-styled landscapes, his witty response to Mick Jagger's request to design an album cover and, of course, his mind-bending optical illusion works.
M.C. Escher_Eyes, 1946
" This print is a study of reflection using the artist's own eye. He stated, It was necessary and logical to portray somebody in the pupil, an observer, reflected in the convex mirror of the eye. I chose the features of Good Man Bones, with whom we are all confronted, whether we like it or not."
M.C. Escher_Goriano Sicoli, 1929
M.C. Escher_Cerro al Volturno, Abruzzi, 1930
M.C. Escher_Portrait of G. Escher-Umiker (Jetta), 1925
M.C. Escher_Castle in the air, 1928
M.C. Escher_The Drown Cathedral, 1929
M.C. Escher_Tower of Babel, 1928
M.C. Escher_The First Day of Creation, 1925
M.C. Escher_Perfume, 1921
M.C. Escher_Rippled Surface,1950
"To relieve his tensions at the end of the afternoon, he took a brisk walk through the beautiful old woods, near his house and workshop in Baarn. On a winter day, Escher came across the edge od a murky pond surrounded by stately trees. He turned around and bent his head to look at the water through his knees. In this print. the concentric, swelling ripples from an acorn falling into the pond reveal that Escher was not looking up at the moon through the trees, but downward into the reflective water."
M.C. Escher_Puddle, 1952
M.C. Escher_Still Life with Spherical Mirror,1934
M.C. Escher_Balcony,1945
"He used a sketch of Senglea, Malta, that he has made 10 years earlier as his starting point for this particular print; here, he explores the tension between the 2D paper surface and the illusion that the building is bulging outward into the viewer's space."
"Order is repetition of units. Chaos is multiplicity without rhymth."
M.C. Escher_Camels, 1937
"He used a sketch of Senglea, Malta, that he has made 10 years earlier as his starting point for this particular print; here, he explores the tension between the 2D paper surface and the illusion that the building is bulging outward into the viewer's space."
M.C. Escher_Fish and Boats, 1948
"M.C. Escher never sold his drawings, watercolors, constructed objects, or printing matrices. These unique artworks constituted his private world. Along with hundreds of his prints, they were transferred into a Dutch foundation between 1969 and 1972 inorder to minimize estate taxes. After Escher death in 1972, the works passed to his three sons, who later sought to sell them. At the time, Micael Sach's father had just liquidated his business, making it possible for his son to purchase almost all of them. Rarely is one person or institution able to possess such a large portion of a major artist's oeuvre. Since 1980, Michael Sachs has released about half of his initial holdings, from which several collections have been formed, including that of the Israel Museum."
MFA Houston, Jun 16, 2022
Comments