Book Review: Escher on Escher by M. C. Escher

Escher on Escher: Exploring the Infinite by M. C. Escher, translated from the Dutch by Karin Ford

This collection of writings by M. C. Escher includes some letters and essays not always found in other volumes. The biggest part of the book is from a series of lectures in English in which Escher covers a lot of his works, organized according to thematic elements he explored. The lectures are basically notes paired with slides. Both the notes and the slides are included in this book, resulting in a treasure trove of his writing and his art. The book ends with a short, sympathetic biography by Jan W. Vermeulen, a fellow graphic artist who knew Escher later in life.

Escher started out as an artist. He moved to Italy where he was inspired by the countryside. He struggled economically and eventually returned to The Netherlands. He took a trip to Spain where he visited the Alhambra, a Moorish palace in Granada. He was amazed at the wall decorations--abstract shapes in repeating patterns that could have extended to infinity. He wondered about using more concrete shapes, like humans or animals. As he worked at his craft, he discovered many techniques that made his work more complex and more fascinating. The art world was uninterested until the early 1950s when Escher himself was in his early 50s. Then an explosion of appreciation came, so much so that he complained that he spent more time stamping prints than crafting new works. Success never went to his head. Probably after years of poverty he had plenty of perspective on what was valuable.

He did suffer from insecurity. In addition to the life of economic struggle, he felt alone in his work. No other artist shared his passion for the work of crafting interlocking or intertwining figures that could repeat indefinitely. The joy of that success was not something others felt or sought out, only appreciated. His work branched out to other ideas, playing with impossible three-dimensional shapes rendered through two-dimensional pictures (the waterfall that feeds itself or the staircase that always goes up). Escher felt as if his creative work was like being in a beautiful garden that no one else visits. The experience was both comforting and lonely.

Escher's work is outstanding, in part because he thought carefully about his inspiration and worked diligently to bring those thoughts and inspirations into a concrete reality. He discusses how he established repeating patterns and had to use different colors for contrast and for distinguishing different visual elements. He explored infinity through repeating patterns that changed size, constantly halving or thirding their ways down to images only a millimeter or two across. He is both artistically great and intellectually fascinating. This book shows this happy marriage of skill and inspiration.

Highly recommended--This is probably my favorite book on art that I've read, though I haven't read that many.

Sample text, describing the difference between an illustrative artist and a graphic artist:

The restrictions finally forced upon us by graphic techniques (and those of woodcarving are probably the most rigid of all) are unknown to the illustrator. He can of course restrict himself, but he does not have to. The graphic artist, however, must (at least if he wants to keep from violating his material). He perhaps even chooses his technique because he consciously wants to set himself very definite limits, because he prefers discipline above the seduction of multiplicity and chaos. In fact, simplicity and order are, if not the principal, then certainly the most important guidelines for human beings in general. The urge toward simplification and order keeps us going and inspires us in the midst of chaos. Chaos is the beginning; simplicity is the end. The above-mentioned elements of repetition and multiplication is not in conflict with this. On the contrary, order is repetition of units; chaos is multiplicity without rhythm. [pp. 14-15, from Newsletter of the Dutch Circle of Graphic Artists and Illustrators, no. 3, June 1950]