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Two Intersecting Planes
20 January 2018

Two Intersecting Planes

Fish and birds are Escher’s favorite animals. Or, at least, that is what his work seems to suggest. When he was experimenting with tessellations in the late 1930s, he arrived at these shapes quite soon. They lend themselves very well to the juggling act that is needed for this technique. Which is why they keep popping up in his work. Individually, like in Day and Night, Sun and Moon, Liberation, Fishes, Swans, Depth, Three Worlds and Whirlpools. In combination with other animals, but often also together. Consider for example Sky and Water I and II, Metamorphosis II, Predestination and Two Intersecting Planes.

M.C. Escher, Two Intersecting Planes, woodcut in green, brown and black, printed from three blocks, January 1952

M.C. Escher, Two Intersecting Planes, woodcut in green, brown and black, printed from three blocks, January 1952

That last one, Two Intersecting Planes, is from January 1952. By then, Escher had a firm grasp on these shapes and in this particular print, he also made them three-dimensional. It results in a combination of two of his major fascinations: tessellations and creating the illusion of three-dimensionality on a flat surface. In this woodcut, he created a jigsaw puzzle with his favourite shapes. As Escher described it in 1959 *:

'Two thin, flat rectangular boards intersect each other at a slight angle. Holes have been sawn in each board leaving openings shaped like fish and birds. The holes in one board can be filled up with the remaining parts of the other board. The jigsaw pieces of the one are mirror images of those in the other.’

M.C. Escher, Regular Division of the Plane (Birds) no. 18, India ink, pencil and watercolor, February 1938

M.C. Escher, Regular Division of the Plane (Birds) no. 18, India ink, pencil and watercolor, February 1938

M.C. Escher, Regular Division of the Plane (Birds and Fish) no. 22, India ink, colored pencil and watercolor, March 1938

M.C. Escher, Regular Division of the Plane (Birds and Fish) no. 22, India ink, colored pencil and watercolor, March 1938

M.C. Escher, Regular Division of the Plane (Fish) no. 20, India ink, pencil, gold paint and watercolor, March 1938

M.C. Escher, Regular Division of the Plane (Fish) no. 20, India ink, pencil, gold paint and watercolor, March 1938

M.C. Escher, Regular Division of the Plane (Flying Birds and Fish) no. 80, India ink, pencil, opaque white, November 1950

M.C. Escher, Regular Division of the Plane (Flying Birds and Fish) no. 80, India ink, pencil, opaque white, November 1950

M.C. Escher, Sun and Moon, woodcut in blue, red, yellow and black, printed from four blocks, April 1948

M.C. Escher, Sun and Moon, woodcut in blue, red, yellow and black, printed from four blocks, April 1948

M.C. Escher, Fish, woodcut in three tones of grey-green, printed from three blocks, October 1941

M.C. Escher, Fish, woodcut in three tones of grey-green, printed from three blocks, October 1941

M.C. Escher, Sky and Water I. woodcut, 1938

M.C. Escher, Sky and Water I. woodcut, 1938

M.C. Escher, Metamorphosis II, woodcut in black, green and brown, printed from twenty blocks, on three combined sheets, November 1939 - March 1940

M.C. Escher, Metamorphosis II, woodcut in black, green and brown, printed from twenty blocks, on three combined sheets, November 1939 - March 1940

Source

[*] The 2013 reissue by Taschen GMBH of M.C. Escher. The Graphic Work. Originally published by Royal publishing house J.J. Tijl NV, Zwolle 1959, page 15.

Erik Kersten

Erik Kersten

Editor

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Leaning Tower of Pisa

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Between 26 April and 28 June 1936 Escher takes a round trip by freighter along the shores of Italy and Spain. He also travels inland by train. His wife Jetta accompanies him on a section of this trip. The couple enjoyed themselves immensely. They had moved to Switzerland the year before and were missing Italy terribly. On 13 June Escher arrived in Livorno by freighter. Jetta had travelled back the day before. From his travel journal:
'At 10.10 I journeyed to Pisa by train. From the Piazza Vittorio I took the trolleybus-cum-tram to the station, the same model as I saw running back and forth between Venice Mestre—a very pleasant and fast connection. In Pisa by 10.30 and then on to the Duomo by tram. From the first gallery of the Leaning Tower I did a drawing of the cathedral, on which I worked constantly until 3.30. At the station I ate something hurriedly and took the train back to Livorno at 4.18’
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Lewis Carroll

On 14 January 1898 Lewis Carroll, the British author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, died. Carroll passed away five months before Escher was born. Although their paths never crossed, the author and the artist have a lot in common. Both were frighteningly thin, both were addicted to long walks, both were obsessed by documenting the minutiae of their daily life, both were mad about chess and intrigued by game elements and by using these in their work.
Other World

Other World

The dazzling print Other World is one of Escher’s masterpieces. And rightly so. He created this combination of woodcut and wood engraving in January 1947. It is like looking through the windows of a brick room upon a crater-filled lunar surface. This is remarkable in itself, but what makes this print really impressive is that Escher combines three views (nadir, horizon and zenith) on this moon in one image.