M. C. Escher
M. C. Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth17 June 1898
fifty pleasant seems strange work
I've been doing this kind of work for over fifty years now, and nothing in this strange and frightening world seems more pleasant to me.
achieve attempt upstairs
Only those who attempt the absurd...will achieve the impossible. I think...I think it's in my basement... Let me go upstairs and check.
catch certain enigma eye
There has to be a certain enigma in it, which does not immediately catch the eye
building possible untrained
At first I had no idea at all of the possibility of systematically building up my figures. I did not know ... this was possible for someone untrained in mathematics,
order repetition
Order is repetition of units.Chaos is multiplicity without rythm.
believe i-believe wells
I believe that producing pictures, as I do, is almost solely a question of wanting so very much to do it well.
children growing-up grows
I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days.
math artist training
By keenly confronting the enigmas that surround us, and by considering and analyzing the observations that I had made, I ended up in the domain of mathematics. Although I am absolutely without training in the exact sciences, I often seem to have more in common with mathematicians than with my fellow artists.
heart artist soul
I am a graphic artist heart and soul, though I find the term artist rather embarrassing.
crazy illustration reptiles
A woman once rang me up and said, 'Mr. Escher, I am absolutely crazy about your work. In your print -Reptiles- you have given such a striking illustration of reincarnation.' I replied, 'Madam, if that's the way you see it, so be it.'
beauty art brother
I never got a pass mark in math... Just imagine - mathematicians now use my prints to illustrate their books. Funny me consorting with all these learned folks, as though I were their long lost brother. I guess they are unaware of the fact that I am ignorant about the whole thing.
art artist games
All my works are games, serious game.
spiritual lying discovery
There is something in such laws that takes the breath away. They are not discoveries or inventions of the human mind, but exist independently of us. In a moment of clarity, one can at most discover that they are there and take them into account. Long before there were people on the earth, crystals were already growing in the earth's crust. On one day or another, a human being first came across such a sparkling morsel of regularity lying on the ground or hit one with his stone tool and it broke off and fell at his feet, and he picked it up and regarded it in his open hand, and he was amazed.
men law discovery
There is something breathtaking about the basic laws of crystals. They are in no sense a discovery of the human mind; they just "are" - they exist quite independently of us. The most that man can do is become aware, in a moment of clarity, that they are there, and take cognizance of them.