M.C. ESCHER: Mathematician first, artist Last
...a at all of the possibility of systematically building up my figures. I did not know…this was possible for someone untrained in mathematics, and especially as a result of my putting forward my own layman’s theory which forced me to think through the possibilities.”( 1958, M.C. Escher,Regular Division of the Plane) His inspirations came from readings he did on many mathematical ideas and with this knowledge, he created projective geometry, structures in plane, Euclidean geometries, paradox and “impossible” figures, and he adopted Roger Penrose’s ideas. The bulk of his work surrounds two main areas: logic of space and space geometry. Physical objects have a spatial relation which is necessary is considered the “logic” of space, when these are disrupted they become visual paradoxes or optical illusions. Maurits understood the relationship between geometry of space and logic of space determining one another. He used to experiment with light and apply it to the logic of space, and when using concave and convex objects he would shadow. He was also very particular about perspective, using vanishing points creating an illusion of infinity for the eye. In doing this and using certain vanishing points, he could make the elements in a picture shift. He also created a three dimensional object from a two dimensional representation, one of his works if based around the idea of Roger Penrose’s -the impossible triangle. M.C. Escher contributed with tessellations, which are arranged closed shapes that cover a plane without touching or overlapping and no gaps. He was intrigued by “metamorphoses”, during 1957 his essay on tessellations has a quote in which he remarked: “In mathematical quarters, the regular division of the pla...