Even for many of those with a deep appreciation for the arts, Maurits Cornelis Escher might not exactly register as a household name. When talking about the works created by the mysterious artist, however, it is a completely different story; Escher’s Drawing Hands print was used as the cover of Ficciones, the most popular collection of stories by Argentinian author and poet Jorge Luis Borges. In regards to popular culture and film, his work with the Penrose Tribar serves as the inspiration for the mesmerizing stairway scenes of Inception and Harry Potter. Now, you get the chance to learn about the man behind the art you’ve been seeing at the Sejong Museum of Art.
To name it ‘surrealism’ wouldn’t do justice to his works; what distinguishes Escher’s collection from any other is in the unique use of mathematical configurations and logic incorporated in the creation process. Beyond mere geometric shapes, what’s attempted in such endeavors is an exploration of the impossible. The perhaps most recognizable of this style is the Möbius strip, which features ants crawling on a surface with only one side and one edge. Another is the beautiful Drawing Hands, in which two hands—with one rotated 180 degrees from the other—face each other but never touch. This print is one of the covers of Ficciones, the most popular collection of stories written by Borges. Towards the end of the exhibit, the Jewish Rope depicts Escher and his wife connected by an infinite bandage to symbolize their everlasting love.
Further, a look at Escher’s collection would not be complete without a thorough examination of his work with the Penrose Triangle and Tribar. Try and recall the scene in Christopher Nolan’s Sci-fi thriller Inception: where Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) coaches Ariadne (Ellen Page) to control her creations inside the dream dimension(s)—for, in this ‘dream world,’ reality is an illusion and anything can materialize if the architect simply imagines it. The exact scene is based on the Labyrinth, one of M.C. Escher’s signature works; from the looping waterfall and the endless stairs, the image defies gravity and realistic expectations of the audience.
M.C. Escher continues to challenge general notions of reality through the unique technique of Tessellation: the complete tiling of a level surface with various geometric pattern (think, puzzles or mosaics). Escher developed this technique himself, after a visit to the Alhambra of Granada, Spain where the use of tiles is commonplace. Escher’s optical illusion created with the technique is incredibly complex; mere descriptions along the line of: “the intersection of the black and white birds flying over a farm field, the fish transforming into birds as they move from water to sky, and human figures stuck in circular motion” would only fail to capture the magic.
Despite comparisons to artists such as Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, both authorities on Surrealism, Escher himself did not belong to any movement; rather, he instigated more than one. As such, the ingenuity of M.C. Escher’s art is free from the limits of time and space. And, for that, it serves as an inspiration for the contemporary artists, architects, designers and creators worldwide to this day—his works themselves are the evidence of his infinite legacy, and the collection showcased in the M.C. Escher Special Exhibition is certainly no exception.