Unique drawings of surreal worlds. ( )

Very simply, an excellent primer on one of the premier artists of our generation. ( )

Estampas y dibujos.

Indeholder "Introduction", "Classification and description", "I. Early prints", " 1. Tower of Babel", " 2. Castrovalva", " 3. Palm", " 4. Portrait of the engineer G. A. Escher", " 5. Fluorescent sea", " 6. St. Peter, Rome", " 7. Dream", "II. The regular division of a plane", "II.a. Glide Reflection", " 8. Swans", " 9. Horsemen", " 10. Two intersecting planes", "II.b. The function of figures as a background", " 11. Day and night", " 12. Sun and moon", " 13. Sky and water I", " 14. Sky and water II", "II.c. Development of form and contrast", " 15. Liberation", " 16. Development I", " 17. Verbum", "II.d. Infinity of number", " 18. Sphere surface with fish", " 19. Path of life II", " 20. Smaller and smaller", " 21. Whirlpools", " 22. Circle limit I", " 23. Square limit", " 24. Circle limit III", " 25. Circle limit IV (Heaven and Hell)", " 26. Fish and scales", " 27. Butterflies", "II.e. Story pictures", " 28. Reptiles", " 29. Cycle", " 30. Encounter", " 31. Magic mirror", " 32. Metamorphose", " 33. Predestination", "II.f. Irregular filling of plane surfaces", " 34. Mosaic I", " 35. Mosaic II", "III. Unlimited spaces", " 36. Depth", " 37. Cubic space division", " 38. Three intersecting planes", "IV. Spatial rings and spirals", " 39. Knots", " 40. Moebius band II", " 41. Concentric rinds", " 42. Spirals", " 43. Sphere spirals", " 44. Moebius band I", " 45. Rind", " 46. Bond of union", "V. Mirror images", "V.a. Reflections in water", " 47. Rippled surface", " 48. Puddle", " 49. Three worlds", "V.b. Sphere reflections", " 50. Still life with reflecting globe", " 51. Hand with reflecting globe", " 52. Three spheres II", " 53. Dewdrop", " 54. Eye", "VI. Inversion", " 55. Cube with magic ribbons", " 56. Concave and convex", "VII. Polyhedrons", " 57. Double planetoid", " 58. Tetrahedral planetoid", " 59. Order and chaos", " 60. Gravitation", " 61. Stars", " 62. Flat worms", "VIII. Relativities", " 63. Another world II", " 64. High and low", " 65. Curl-up", " 66. House of stairs", " 67. Relativity", "IX. Conflict between the flat and the spatial", " 68. Three spheres I", " 69. Drawing hands", " 70. Balcony", " 71. Doric columns", " 72. Print gallery", " 73. Dragon", "X. Impossible buildings", " 74. Belvedere", " 75. Ascending and descending", " 76. Waterfall", "Maurits Cornelis Escher".

76 af Eschers mest kendte værker. Man kan som sædvanligt tænke længe over flere af dem. ( )

I've been fascinated with and delighted by M.C. Escher's art since I first encountered his famous "Relativity" print as a small child. I love the way he way he plays with perspective, with dimensions, with background and foreground, with visual paradoxes, and recursion, and all kinds of almost mathematical ideas, all while retaining a sense of whimsy.

This particular volume reproduces 76 Escher prints (at least of couple of which, much to my surprise, I don't think I'd seen before), with the author himself providing a short introduction and a paragraph or so of commentary on each piece. These commentaries are often not much more than a simple description of what it is we're looking at, and yet even so I found many of them gave me interesting new insights. After all these years, it's rather wonderful to know I can still see new things in Escher's work. ( )