Books |
M. C. Escher Pop-Ups
By
Published: Nov 25, 2014
Category:
Art and Photography
Twenty years from now, someone will make a breakthrough in the arts, technology or design, and remark, “Well, when I was a kid, there was this book….”
He or she will mean “M.C. Escher Pop-Ups.”
It’s only 16 pages. By conventional standards, a wisp of a book. Really: a pamphlet.
But we do not judge Escher by conventional standards.
Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible.
And when we consider that this book takes his work into the third dimension, we — well, some of us, anyway — get excited. (To buy the book from Amazon, click here.
Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?
Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was a draftsman whose exacting vision and precise technique led him to explore the relationship between art and mathematics. In 1922, he visited the Alhambra, a 14th Century castle in Granada, Spain; its intricate carvings and optical tricks inspired him to go deeper into mathematical creation. He’d go on to create 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and more than 2,000 drawings and sketches, many of them mathematically-inspired — and to write so well on the subject that some academics considered him a research mathematician. (For more about Escher and more Escher books, click here.)
“The things I want to express are so beautiful and pure.”
M.C. Escher, on a flat page, is a contact high. As pop-ups? Hang on.
