M.C Escher

(Dutch, 1898–1972)

M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist known for his iconic optical illusions. His lithographs, woodcuts, engravings, and drawings expressed a high level of technical expertise and meticulous attention to detail. With his puzzling depictions of tessellating staircases and interlocking objects within space, Escher offered visual conundrums to the viewer. “I can't keep from fooling around with our irrefutable certainties,” the artist once remarked. “It is, for example, a pleasure knowingly to mix up two and three dimensionalities, flat and spatial, and to make fun of gravity.” Born Maurits Cornelis Escher on June 17, 1898 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, he studied graphic design at the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem from 1919–22. Influenced by the traditional drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, Escher’s unique practice in turn inspired later Op Art artists like Bridget Riley. He died on March 27, 1972 in Laren, Netherlands. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and the Escher in Het Paleis in The Hague, among others.