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World of M.C. Escher
large white paperback
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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241 people want to read
About the author
M.C. Escher
86 books187 followersMaurits Cornelis Escher, usually referred to as M.C. Escher, was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture and tessellations.
Maurits Cornelis, or "Mauk" as he came to be nicknamed, was was the youngest son of civil engineer George Arnold Escher and his second wife, Sara Gleichman. He was a sickly child, and was placed in a special school at the age of seven and failed the second grade. In 1903, the family moved to Arnhem where he took carpentry and piano lessons until he was thirteen years old.
From 1903 until 1918 he attended primary and secondary school. Though he excelled at drawing, his grades were generally poor. In 1919, Escher attended the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. He briefly studied architecture, but failed a number of subjects (partly due to a persistent skin infection) and switched to decorative arts. Here he studied under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, with whom he would remain friends for years. In 1922 Escher left the school, having gained experience in drawing and making woodcuts.
In 1922, an important year in his life, Escher traveled through Italy (Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, Siena) and Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Granada). He was impressed by the Italian countryside and by the Alhambra, a fourteenth-century Moorish castle in Granada, Spain. He came back to Italy regularly in the following years. In Italy he met Jetta Umiker, whom he married in 1924. The young couple settled down in Rome and stayed there until 1935, when the political climate under Benito Mussolini became unbearable. Their son, Giorgio Arnaldo Escher, named after his grandfather, was born in Rome. The family next moved to Château-d'Œx, Switzerland where they remained for two years.
Escher, who had been very fond of and inspired by the landscapes in Italy, was decidedly unhappy in Switzerland, so in 1937, the family moved again, to Ukkel, a small town near Brussels, Belgium. World War II forced them to move in January 1941, this time to Baarn, the Netherlands, where Escher lived until 1970. Most of Escher's better-known pictures date from this period. The sometimes cloudy, cold, wet of the Netherlands allowed him to focus intently on his works, and only during 1962, when he underwent surgery, was there a time when no new images were created.
Escher moved to the Rosa-Spier house in Laren in 1970, a retirement home for artists where he had his own studio. He died at the home at 73 years of age.
Maurits Cornelis, or "Mauk" as he came to be nicknamed, was was the youngest son of civil engineer George Arnold Escher and his second wife, Sara Gleichman. He was a sickly child, and was placed in a special school at the age of seven and failed the second grade. In 1903, the family moved to Arnhem where he took carpentry and piano lessons until he was thirteen years old.
From 1903 until 1918 he attended primary and secondary school. Though he excelled at drawing, his grades were generally poor. In 1919, Escher attended the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. He briefly studied architecture, but failed a number of subjects (partly due to a persistent skin infection) and switched to decorative arts. Here he studied under Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, with whom he would remain friends for years. In 1922 Escher left the school, having gained experience in drawing and making woodcuts.
In 1922, an important year in his life, Escher traveled through Italy (Florence, San Gimignano, Volterra, Siena) and Spain (Madrid, Toledo, Granada). He was impressed by the Italian countryside and by the Alhambra, a fourteenth-century Moorish castle in Granada, Spain. He came back to Italy regularly in the following years. In Italy he met Jetta Umiker, whom he married in 1924. The young couple settled down in Rome and stayed there until 1935, when the political climate under Benito Mussolini became unbearable. Their son, Giorgio Arnaldo Escher, named after his grandfather, was born in Rome. The family next moved to Château-d'Œx, Switzerland where they remained for two years.
Escher, who had been very fond of and inspired by the landscapes in Italy, was decidedly unhappy in Switzerland, so in 1937, the family moved again, to Ukkel, a small town near Brussels, Belgium. World War II forced them to move in January 1941, this time to Baarn, the Netherlands, where Escher lived until 1970. Most of Escher's better-known pictures date from this period. The sometimes cloudy, cold, wet of the Netherlands allowed him to focus intently on his works, and only during 1962, when he underwent surgery, was there a time when no new images were created.
Escher moved to the Rosa-Spier house in Laren in 1970, a retirement home for artists where he had his own studio. He died at the home at 73 years of age.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 9, 2021
Amazing. No, seriously.
February 15, 2012
Maurits Cornelis Escher ha avuto tre fortune nella sua vita. La prima è stata il potersi divertire con le sue opere; la seconda di essere stato notato (immagino via Donald Coxeter) da Martin Gardner che l'ha reso famoso in tutto il mondo quando ancora era vivo; la terza essere stato unito a Kurt Gödel e Johann Sebastian Bach in un'Eterna Ghirlanda Brillante (buffo tra l'altro notare come i tre grandi personaggi siano un tedesco, un austriaco e un olandese: una strana troika, se ci pensate su).
Purtroppo questo libro non è più disponibile né nell'edizione Garzanti che io posseggo - almeno fino a che i miei duemezzenni me lo permetteranno: la sovraccopertina è purtroppo già stata strappata - né nella versione inglese. Posso al più consigliarvi di cercare The World of M.C.Escher su AbeBooks, la metalibreria di testi usati. E vi consiglio di prenderlo: magari non siete troppo interessati alla sua biografia - lo sapevate che da giovane aveva fatto un tour italiano e ci sono molti suoi disegni di amene località nostrane? - e agli altri saggi tra cui uno di Escher stesso e uno di Coxeter; ma le sue litografie sono davvero belle, anche se non siete interessati alla matematica che ci sta dietro. D'altra parte, almeno per le sue prime opere di carattere matematico, il Nostro ha lavorato in maniera puramente amatoriale: solo in seguito ha iniziato, grazie agli amici matematici che si era fatto, a usare un approccio per così dire più tecnico. Fortunatamente, però, la tecnicità non ha colpito l'arte: le sue opere sono belle a vedersi, come scrivevo sopra.
Se volete sapere di più su Escher, potete andare sul sito ufficiale http://www.mcescher.com/ , oppure leggere una presentazione a cura del progetto Polymath a http://areeweb.polito.it/didattica/po...
Purtroppo questo libro non è più disponibile né nell'edizione Garzanti che io posseggo - almeno fino a che i miei duemezzenni me lo permetteranno: la sovraccopertina è purtroppo già stata strappata - né nella versione inglese. Posso al più consigliarvi di cercare The World of M.C.Escher su AbeBooks, la metalibreria di testi usati. E vi consiglio di prenderlo: magari non siete troppo interessati alla sua biografia - lo sapevate che da giovane aveva fatto un tour italiano e ci sono molti suoi disegni di amene località nostrane? - e agli altri saggi tra cui uno di Escher stesso e uno di Coxeter; ma le sue litografie sono davvero belle, anche se non siete interessati alla matematica che ci sta dietro. D'altra parte, almeno per le sue prime opere di carattere matematico, il Nostro ha lavorato in maniera puramente amatoriale: solo in seguito ha iniziato, grazie agli amici matematici che si era fatto, a usare un approccio per così dire più tecnico. Fortunatamente, però, la tecnicità non ha colpito l'arte: le sue opere sono belle a vedersi, come scrivevo sopra.
Se volete sapere di più su Escher, potete andare sul sito ufficiale http://www.mcescher.com/ , oppure leggere una presentazione a cura del progetto Polymath a http://areeweb.polito.it/didattica/po...
October 20, 2018
Probably like all art/graphic design students of a certain age, I was big into Escher in college - calendars, posters, and this book which was fresh and new at the time. I know a number of newer, better books on Escher have come out since - but this is the one that's been on my bookshelf the longest, (right up there next to Frank Frazetta).
November 28, 2017
I love this book! This copy has been in my family since I was just a tot. I remember taking it off the shelves and looking at the pictures many times, fascinated most by Escher's use of line to create form and his pieces that use repeat pattern.
June 27, 2025
The essays in this book are okay, delving into Escher’s fascination for symmetry and impossible logical drawings which has a wide audience (mathematicians and scientists included) but not been a part of the art world (considered to cerebral), but the catalogue of prints are beautiful.
The book is also physically heavy so I’ll leave it at the summer house when I leave.
The book is also physically heavy so I’ll leave it at the summer house when I leave.
September 7, 2017
Amazing.
March 29, 2019
An excellent and succinctly-worded exploration of Escher's body of work, with a particular emphasis on his artistic transformation around the time of 1937.
December 8, 2021
One of my favorite artists ever.
Not much to add here since it's mostly illustrations and an admittedly long and boring introduction.
Pretty pickchers!
Not much to add here since it's mostly illustrations and an admittedly long and boring introduction.
Pretty pickchers!
November 27, 2022
Gorgeous art book.
January 13, 2025
Lots of good references for people who are interested in loops, cycles, and infinities. I like that this book includes the sketches he created before making his final plates.
July 17, 2021
I’ve been fascinated by the work of 20th Century Dutch artist M. C. Escher since I first encountered it in college. His impossible constructions and transformation tilings in particular drew my eye and brain as I tried to figure out how he was able to create them. Somewhere along the way I picked up this book but have only now, years later, gotten around to reading it.
The essays at the front include one by Escher himself, but the first one, by museum curator J. L. Locher is the most enlightening. It describes how the artist used mathematical principles (without getting deep into the math itself) to structure many of his works, and how he used ambiguous shades of gray to smoothly turn a floor into a wall or a ceiling in a work like “Relativity” or create the closed loop staircase in “Ascending and Descending.”
If the book falls short anywhere, it’s in the limited attention it gives to Escher’s work in color. Many of his tilings, where he experimented with ways to divide up a flat surface with interlocking figures, were done in watercolor, for example. The book, however, shows only eight works in color, perhaps for cost reasons.
And while the book reproduces over 250 of his prints, a quick tour through the Escher Foundation web site’s gallery reveals many more.
The thing about Escher’s art in the latter half of his career is that while it’s mind-bending in so many ways, it’s still approachable. Viewers don’t need seven degrees in art appreciation to be enthralled by the work. While revealing how he did what he did, The World of M. C. Escher only increases that enchantment. Highly recommended.
The essays at the front include one by Escher himself, but the first one, by museum curator J. L. Locher is the most enlightening. It describes how the artist used mathematical principles (without getting deep into the math itself) to structure many of his works, and how he used ambiguous shades of gray to smoothly turn a floor into a wall or a ceiling in a work like “Relativity” or create the closed loop staircase in “Ascending and Descending.”
If the book falls short anywhere, it’s in the limited attention it gives to Escher’s work in color. Many of his tilings, where he experimented with ways to divide up a flat surface with interlocking figures, were done in watercolor, for example. The book, however, shows only eight works in color, perhaps for cost reasons.
And while the book reproduces over 250 of his prints, a quick tour through the Escher Foundation web site’s gallery reveals many more.
The thing about Escher’s art in the latter half of his career is that while it’s mind-bending in so many ways, it’s still approachable. Viewers don’t need seven degrees in art appreciation to be enthralled by the work. While revealing how he did what he did, The World of M. C. Escher only increases that enchantment. Highly recommended.
May 6, 2009
Five essays about the life and work of M C Escher, and a huge collection of his works. His simultaneously mathematical and emotional approach to art is well illuminated in this book.
August 27, 2009
A collection of the striking and original graphic artwork of M.C. Escher, with accompanying descriptive text.
October 15, 2013
his metamorfoses can be adapted to ovid's. where text meets drawing
April 1, 2016
talented artist; inspirational read
November 22, 2020
A beautiful collection of prints, with a brief set of introductory essays in the beginning.
October 31, 2022
I could look at these two drawings all day: Drawing Hands 1948 and of course Relativity 1953. That alone should be a 5 star rating, but I lost interest in the sameness of the others.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews