The Photography of M.C. Escher
The Photography of M.C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher was born in 1898 in Leeuwarden. His drawing and graphic skills can be traced back to his schooldays, and in particular to the influence of his teacher F. W. van der Haagen. After leaving school he spent three years at the School of Architecture and Ornamental Design in Haarlem. The graphic skills he had discovered at secondary school were further developed here under the dynamic S. Jesserun de Mesquita. He lived in Italy for ten years after 1922 and from there he visited numerous places as part of his studies - these included Spain as well as many towns in Italy itself. After leaving Italy in 1934 and going to Switzerland and Belgium, he settled in Baarn, Holland in 1941. He died in 1972 at the age of 73.
In contrast to the exclusive use of abstract geometric forms in Islamic ornamentation, Escher was looking mainly for representational motifs (such as fish, birds, reptiles or humans) even for his division of planes. The background of ‘Encounter’ shows a wall on which black, long nosed and white, grinning men form a perfectly interlocking surface. In front of this surface we can see a gaping, circular hole around which the little men emerge marching from the wall surface. They seem to be looking for solid ground, albeit only drawn. So the black man, stooping lower, makes his way along the left side, whilst the white man moves to the right of the illusory abyss, until they meet. Escher's own comment on the scene in the foreground illustrates his fondness of dualities: "Here a white optimist and a black pessimist meet and shake each other by the hand". According to Escher, all contrasts have to be consciously accepted as enrichment and an inspiration in the real world, in the same way that a graphic artist accepts the fundamental contrast between blak and white in his work. A similarity was noticed by Escher's agent between the little white man and the popular Dutch prime minister Colijn, but to what extent this was intended by the artist remains open to speculation.
His visits to the Alhambra had acquainted Escher with Moorish architecture and design. Inspired by Moorish wall and floor mosaics, Escher had been preoccupied since the late 1930s with the ‘regular division of planes’. This term refers to a graphic division of the drawing...