Stories about Escher

The world-famous print Relativity and the lesser known Gravity have more in common than it seems. At first sight, it seems unlikely that there might be a connection between this typical Escher polyhedral star and his Relativity print, which depicts figures walking up and down a loop of stairs. For Escher the connection is obvious.

Escher very cleverly toys with our perceptions. He uses a staircase as the connecting element, in which the undersides have not been cut away. The staircase is connected to the outside world, the world outside the print, through pseudo-Romanesque passageways. By cunningly bringing together architectural elements with which we are all familiar, Escher prompts us to unquestioningly accept the impossible constructions of these prints. Presumably, we do not even notice them at first.

The prints of M.C. Escher can be classified in several different ways. For instance, you could group together works that feature never-ending cycles, reflections, or metamorphoses. Or you could categorise them on the basis of birds, reptiles, or stars and planetary tessellations.

People tend to assume that M.C.Escher’s early prints feature scenes inspired by specific places in Italy. But this is not always the case. From 1925 to 1928 we see Escher discovering his métier, and experimenting with and considering all kinds of possibilities. He tackles different subjects and explores different ways of portraying them.

Has this ever happened to you? You’re walking along a familiar shopping street when something suddenly catches your attention in a shop window. For a moment you don’t recognise the scene reflected back to you and it leaves you feeling slightly disoriented. The unfamiliar aspect of an otherwise familiar scene turns your day upside down. The different image that caught your eye continues to play on your mind and leaves you wondering, “What was it that I saw?”