Review

Milt thomas

The Vero Beach Museum of Art is currently showcasing the works of artist M.C. Escher entitled M.C. Escher: Infinite variations. He was a graphic artist who spent his life seeking new ways to explore the world that resided in his imagination. To get there, he eschewed conventional art media in favor of printing-related vehicles – woodblock, wood engraving and lithography.

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, the youngest son of a civil engineer. He was sickly as a child, a poor student in school and failed his high school exams. But he did have a talent for drawing, which led him to enroll in the School for Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem. A teacher there saw his talent and encouraged him to become a graphic artist. In another life, he probably could have become a mathematician, possessing an intuitive understanding of the discipline. In fact, during his life he corresponded with several well-known mathematicians regarding his ideas. Those ideas found their way into his art.

His earliest work was exhibited in Siena, Italy in 1923 and over the next 13 years he produced numerous Italian landscape prints. But in 1936, he left Fascist Italy and its beautiful landscapes, which were the source of his inspiration. He then turned to his inner self to express his art.

A work from 1938, Sky and Water 1, featured “impossible constructions,” interlocking birds transforming into interlocking fish. This process is known as tessellation, tiling a surface with the same shape, repeated over and over, with each shape fitting precisely together with no overlapping or gaps.

Escher was relatively obscure until 1950 at an exhibition in Antwerp, Belgium. It was there that Belgian author and graphic artist, Mark Severin, wrote an article in an art magazine that prompted an American journalist to visit Escher’s studio and write articles about him for Time and Life magazines. That brought Escher to the world’s attention.

Today he is one of the world’s most famous graphic artists. His art is seen by millions of people thanks to the internet, but a retrospective of many of his most famous works can be seen in person at the Vero Beach Museum of Art through December 30, 2023.

The exhibition showcases more than 100 of his groundbreaking works from throughout his career, from his early Italian landscape sketches, self-portraits and book illustrations to his most iconic images of impossible spaces, tessellations, infinity and his metamorphosis series.  His mind bending, reality warping prints includes subjects like infinite terror, birds changing into fish and back again, and two hands drawing one another. In addition to his artwork, the exhibition also provides a glimpse into the artist’s process with a woodblock study and lithograph stone.

This is the world’s largest private traveling Escher show collection and provides a unique opportunity for everyone to experience his work whether you are a student, family on vacation, amateur artist or art expert.

The Vero Beach Museum of Art is located at 3001 Riverside Park Drive, Vero Beach. For more information, call (772) 231-0707.