Crystallography congress Cambridge, 1960

On 19 August 1960, Escher held a lecture at the Fifth Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography. He was invited to this congress by Prof. Dr Carolina H. MacGillavry, professor in chemical crystallography at the University of Amsterdam. In 1950 she became the first female member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. MacGillavry was a great admirer of Escher and would go on to publish the book Symmetry Aspects of M.C. Escher’s Periodic Drawings in 1965. For crystallographers, the tessellations on which Escher spent years working in his sketchbooks were ideal teaching materials. His patterns are particularly insightful when studying the symmetry, repetition and reflection that are so characteristic of the field. Below is one of the drawings from Escher’s sketchbooks that was exhibited in Cambridge and is included in the book by MacGillavry.

In a letter to his son George (who lived in Canada), dated 2 November 1959, Escher wrote about the meeting:

‘However, the nicest thing to have happened to me recently, was a visit yesterday afternoon- which is why I couldn’t write to you- from a lady,  Professor MacGillavry, who lectures on crystallography at the University of Amsterdam. She came with her sister-in-law, who was also somehow interested in divisions of the plane, and the two of them had their eyes glued to my prints from half past two to till after half past five. What a pair of smart ladies! It’s such a relief to have visitors at last who don’t stare at my creatures uncomprehendingly, but who can chuckle with amusement at anything worth chuckling at. J. Chr.! How they gazed at some of those prints. A few months ago I received a Belgian-American colleague of hers,a Professor Donnay, who lectures somewhere in the US, and apparently she put Mrs MacG. on to me. Obviously she wanted to know what she was letting herself in for, before committing herself. Now that she has seen I’m all right, she will try to have me give a lecture in Cambridge in August 1960, where there is a conference of about 700 crystallographers. In fact, that Professor Donnay had also metioned it and it now looks as thought it will really happen. There will be an exhibition of my prints as well, and my travelling and hotel expenses will be reimbursed. You’ll understand that I don’t want to miss this opportunity;  so if Mother and I come to Canada, it will not be until September 1960, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem.’*

Escher accepted the invitation and immediately took 15 private English lessons. A flurry of correspondence with the organiser, Mr Taylor, ensued, covering practical matters concerning the exhibition, the lecture, the accommodation and the participation in various events. Everything was discussed and arranged very precisely.** Among other things, Escher wrote that:

‘There is one thing that I must emphasise: the tables should be placed in such a way, that no direct sunlight falls upon them. Especially the coloured drawings are extremely sensitive to sunlight.’***

He prepared the exhibition thoroughly: he produced floor plans, gave advise on the cardboard to be used in showcases, gave numbers to the prints and created a visitor catalogue. He also swapped Fishes for Circle Limit IV (Heaven and Hell) at the last moment****.

The exhibition would show 76 prints and drawings, all of which had to be exported too. This proved to be a time-consuming task because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to send them by diplomatic mail. Everything had to go through customs, including all the attendant paperwork*****. Nevertheless, Escher looked back on his English adventure with great pleasure. In a letter to Arthur dated 28 August 1960, Escher wrote about the Cambridge stay:

‘In a word, it was wonderful. They spoiled me enormously for four whole days. The fact that I was the only artist among twelve hundred participants (plus at least three hundred students) was very fortunate. I’d barely arrived when I hastily had to change into my best suit and sit down at a luncheon in St Catherine’s College, as a member of the Company of Principle Speakers. In this way I immediately got to know the figureheads of the conference. I was seated between Mr Belov, the leader of the Russian delegation, consisting of fourty-seven members, and an American whose name I can’t remember. They were both surprisingly friendly and jovial and went to great lengths to praise my exhibition (which I hadn’t even seen myself at that point). I gave my lecture the following nmorning at a quarter past ten in the biggest lecture hall in the place, a dignified structure rather like an amphitheatre, surrounded by gothic arches and pillars and seating about two hunred and twenty. However, the audience was so large that there were people on all the steps. I think there must have been three hundred people present, and many others later told me how sorry they were that they hadn’t been able to get in…

It went splendidly; I wasn’t even slightly nervous, and, as I later heard, spoke clearly and understandably. Two slides at a time were projected on a white wall when I asked… I enjoyed it all so much that I even ventured to throw in a few jokes that weren’t in the written text. At the end I was overwhelmed with deafening applause; I must say it’s not unpleasant to experience something like that… My exhibition was impeccably arranged on long tables, with printed catalogues. It was in an enormous examination hall where all sorts of technical knick-knacks and strange instruments, such as a whole row of computers, microscopes, etc., etc., were displayed, as well as my prints. It looked rather like a hall of a world fair. Next to it there was a conversation hall with easy chairs, tables, a buffet where you could get free coffee, tea or lemonade all day long, and where hundreds of the conference participants walked round, sat down and talked to each other. I too, had some very pleasant conversations there, including some with a number of Russians, who spoke exceptionally bad English and laughed a great deal.

I sold twenty-tree prints in four days: that was quite a feat of administration in itself, not getting confused, and noting all the addresses… There was a  great deal of interest among the members of MIT in my lecture in Cambridge, Mass. (provisionally aranged for 28 October). I will have to work hard on it during the boat trip [Escher would make a seven-week voyage to Canada in the autumn, EK]; they’d like longer than forty-five minutes and more prints.’******

Source
[*] and [******] M.C. Escher, His Life and Complete Graphic Work, edited by J.L. Locher, Abradale Press, 1982, page 94-99 and 101-102

[**], [***], [****] and [*****] Wim Hazeu, M.C. Escher, Een biografie, Meulenhoff, 1998, page 412-413