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Plane Filling II
12 July 2017

Plane Filling II

This is Plane Filling II, a lithograph from July 1957 without an underlying system. The shapes extend out in all directions. It is perhaps the weirdest print in Escher’s oeuvre.

M.C. Escher, Vlakvulling II, litho, juli 1957

M.C. Escher, Vlakvulling II, litho, juli 1957

No other work features this many different animals, people, satyrs, and other bizarre creatures: 21 black ones and 19 white ones. Six fish, four birds, seven humanoids, a meditating buddha, two devils, a walrus, an elephant, a monkey, a frog, a camel, a kangaroo, a lobster, a kind of platypus, a dragon, a unicorn, a snake, several dogs, a braying donkey, a turtle, and a snail. And a guitar.

Although Escher has said that he never hides messages or metaphors in his works, the fact that he uses his monogram and the date in the snail is probably no coincidence. At the time, he was reading the biology book Animals without Backbones, featuring jellyfishes, corals, flatworms, squids, starfishes, spiders, grasshoppers and other invertebrates*. First published in 1938, it was critically acclaimed, and was the first biology textbook ever reviewed by Time. The book brought him the inspiration for this remarkable print.

In a lecture that Escher was to give in Canada in 1964 (it was cancelled due to health problems), he would have said of the Plane Filling I and II:

'Yet each of them has the form of something, be this either a living being or an object, which the viewer “recognises”. Putting such a tessellation together is a tiring activity and at the same time a thoughtless game. It tires the draftsman, as if he were not the ringleader himself, but as though, stripped of his will, is allowing his creatures the freedom to determine their own shape and character.'

Source

[*]Wim Hazeu, M.C. Escher, Een biografie, Meulenhoff, 1998, page 382

Erik Kersten

Erik Kersten

Editor

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Villa Les Clématites

Villa Les Clématites

On 4 July 1935, the Escher family moved from Rome to the Swiss town of Château-d’Oex, out of sheer necessity. Maurits would have liked to stay in Italy, but he found the rise of fascism increasingly hard to stomach. His sons being forced to wear Mussolini uniforms was the last straw. But there was a second reason. The youngest son, Arthur, suffered from tuberculosis and moving to the mountains would improve his health. The fact that Nina, Jetta’s sister, was already living in Switzerland, brought Château-d’Oex even more into the picture.
Invitation exhibition Martinus Liernur

Invitation exhibition Martinus Liernur

After their holidays with the Schiblers in Steckborn the Escher family travels to the Netherlands at the end of June 1931. Jette and the kids would stay until 1 September and Maurits until 18 September. He used these 3½ months to enhance and broaden his technique. He visited the artist Fokko Mees, who taught him the possibilities of end-grain engraving with a chisel. Escher bought a graver with a magnifier to create this very detailed work.
Summer 2017

Summer 2017

Summer! It's the longest day of the year. Escher in The Palace wishes everyone beautiful weeks with lots of sunshine and relaxation. Maurits Escher himself sets a good example. In June 1931 he was with his family in the Swiss town of Steckborn. Jetta's sister Nina and her husband Oskar Schibler lived there, at whose residence they used to spend their summer holidays. The Schibler house was located at the lake of Konstanz. On this page from his private photo albums we see Maurits and his sons in a canoe at the lake, enjoying the summer sun and the Swiss mountain air.