M.C. Escher

This comprehensive collection includes more than 150 works of the Dutch artist covering his entire artistic career and is enriched by numerous drawings and print media such as woodblocks and a lithographic stone.
He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.

This comprehensive collection includes more than 150 works of the Dutch artist covering his entire artistic career and is enriched by numerous drawings and print media such as woodblocks and a lithographic stone.

Aside from the iconic images that made this artist famous, such as “Drawing Hands”, “Waterfall”, “Eye”, “Relativity” and “Metamorphosis”, the collection features numerous seldom displayed prints such as the “Griffin of Borghese”, “Still Life and Street” and the entire set of his mezzotints (8 in total), among other works.

Each work has been framed taking into consideration the overall presentation of the image. Museum glass minimizes the mirror effect allowing for full enjoyment of the exhibition. Captions, mostly commented by the artist, explain the intricacies of the images and the techniques used to achieve the end result for all non-representational works.

From an educational perspective, this single-source collection is particularly suited and offers the opportunity to create new permanent educational programs based on Escher’s mathematically oriented depictions. This creates countless opportunities since his tessellations, studies of the infinite, metamorphosis and impossible geometries are found in most mathematical books, as well as in lectures given by many mathematicians. 

Exhibits

Over 150 original works by M.C.Escher, including drawings, woodblocks and a lithographic stone.

Highlights

  • His most iconic images that made the artist famous, such as “Drawing Hands”, “Waterfall”, “Eye”, “Relativity” and “Reptiles”, an extremely rare print.
  • The fourteen foot long “Metamorphosis”.
  • The entire set of the eight mezzotints he produced, including the famous “Eye” and the very rare “Dewdrop”.
  • The complete set of drawings and original woodblocks, as well as the print for “Depth”.
  • The complete set of drawings and original lithographic stone, as well as the print for “Flatworms”.
  • The complete set of drawings and the original three dimensional cube as well as the print for “Cubic Space Division”.
  • Several woodblocks (framed with the prints) which he created for the “Flor de Pascua” and “Emblemata XXIV” book illustrations.
  • The collection includes one of the earliest and extremely rare large format drawings done by the artist plus a great selection of his Italian period prints.
  • All the works are framed, each with a variety of period design, as per museum specifications.

Exhibition Materials

Captions, wall texts.

Display

Requires about 375 linear ft. (depending on installation).

Characteristics

  • Geographic location of storage: U.S.A.
  • All works are shipped framed as per international museum standards.
  • Collection includes the necessary international shipping crates and packing materials ensuring safe ‘nail to nail” transport.
  • Collection is comprehensive, covering a substantial part of the artist’s body of work making it capable of serving as a stand-alone exhibition.
  • Museum curators are provided with extensive information and may curate the exhibition to their specifications.
  • Collection may be expanded or complemented with art from the borrowing museum’s own collections.
  • Collection provides endless opportunities for the development of educational programs, which we can assist with.

Notes

  • PANART is fully supported by the Escher Foundation to do museum exhibitions.
  • M.C. Escher images are copyright of the M.C. Escher Co.
  • Available for North America

M.C. Escher

M.C. Escher, in full Maurits Cornelis Escher, (born June 17, 1898, Leeuwarden, Netherlands—died March 27, 1972, Laren), Dutch graphic artist known for his detailed realistic prints that achieve bizarre optical and conceptual effects.

Maurits Cornelis Escher was the youngest of five boys and was raised by his father, George Escher, a civil engineer, and his father’s second wife, Sarah Gleichman. Maurits was a sickly and creative child drawn to music and carpentry, and, although he was influenced by his father’s engineering, he did not excel at mathematics. In fact, he failed several of his final exams and never technically completed his high-school education.

From 1919 to 1922 Escher studied at the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem, Netherlands, where he developed an interest in graphics and worked mainly in woodcut under the direction of his teacher Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita. He spent a number of years traveling and sketching throughout Europe, living in Italy from 1922 to 1935 and then moving to Switzerland and Belgium. In his prints and drawings from this period, Escher depicted landscapes and natural forms in a fantastic fashion by using multiple, conflicting perspectives.

Escher’s mature style emerged after 1937 in a series of prints that combined meticulous realism with enigmatic optical illusions. Working in lithograph, wood engraving, and woodcut, he portrayed with great technical virtuosity impossible architectural spaces and unexpected metamorphoses of one object into another. Sometimes referred to as the “father of modern tessellations,” Escher commonly used geometric grids to form intricate interlocking designs. His series Regular Division of the Plane (begun in 1936) is a collection of his tessellated drawings, many of which feature animals. He also explored mezzotint, a demanding and precise technique involving metal engraving, with which he produced some of his famous works in black and white, including Eye (1946), Gallery (1946), Crystal (1947), and Dewdrop (1948). In all, Escher composed some 450 lithographs, woodcuts, and wood engravings and about 2,000 drawings and sketches in his lifetime. His images were of equal interest to mathematicians, cognitive psychologists, and the general public, and they were widely reproduced throughout the 20th century.

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