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Art - Essay

MC Escher

MC Escher, more formally called Maurits Cornelis Escher, is known as one of the greatest and well known graphic artists. He’s most recognizable for his use of illusions in his art, of buildings that were ‘impossible’. Throughout his whole life he made 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings; along with over 2,000 drawings and sketches.

His life began as he was born in Leeuwarden, in the Netherlands 1898. After five years he and his family moved to Arnhem where he lived for most of his growing up. In high school he failed his exams and eventually enrolled into the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem of the Netherlands. He started off learning architecture, but quickly switched over to graphic art. Upon graduating around the 1920’s he traveled throughout the mediterranean, becoming influenced by amazing sights such as the Moor-designed Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.

During these travels he met his eventual wife Jetta Umiker.They got married in 1924 and settled down in Rome until the 1930’s, going on to have three children. Fascism was rising in Italy so Escher and his family moved to Switzerland, eventually traveling to Spain once more so Escher could be around complex structures in the Alhambra Palace, La Mezquita of Cordoba, etc. They once again moved in 1937 to Belgium, but left again when the Nazis invaded. They moved to Holland, where Escher continued to make art. Escher eventually died on March 27, 1972, in Laren, of the Netherlands. At that time he left behind about 2,000 pieces of art. Even now he is still widely loved for illusion art and mathematical artistic ability.

“The Drowned Cathedral”

This piece of art is especially great, I believe, because of the strong lights and darks. The black of the sky with the intricate cathedral in white, and the water that has the perfect mixture of both colors; it really allows for the cathedral itself and the boat below it to stand out nicely in contrast, without getting too lost within some busy negative space. There is obviously a lot of deep symbolism here, by just the subject alone and the solemn feeling the art gives off solidifies that. As for organization, the movement works well, the boat and water ripples leading your eye through the picture, all the way up to the spire of the building. You would think the cathedral would be the most emphasised, but I think it’s the boat; there are stronger whites in it, less of the ripples take away from its focus and it’s more solid. The rhythm is really put into place by the ripples in the water, the lines in the cathedral, and the stars of the sky. Overall this is a very strong piece with a lot of feeling.

“Hand with Reflecting Sphere”

This piece is a pencil drawing of a self portrait that has great detail and realism. The style of this piece really forms with its smooth gradients, shading, and blending. The fine attention to detail without being too overly distracting also adds to this solid foundation and simple style. It’s a very simple concept executed with a very fine technical skill which is really the highlight here. The emphasis is really on the hand, since both the ball and background are fairly grey; but it leads the eye into the self portrait from the immediate whiteness of the hand itself. There’s a lot of variety in the ball, as far as actual items within it, yet it’s not so distracting from the picture as a whole/the person with in it. Because of the positive space being perfectly centered and taking up most of the page, the drawing has a nice simple balance too. Overall this is a very nice and refined drawing.

Works Cited

Pixelday. "M.C. Escher." M.C. Escher – Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

"M.C. Escher." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

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