M.C. Escher

Here are some facts about M. C. Escher, the famous graphic artist from the Netherlands.

• M. C. Escher was born on 17th June 1898 in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.
• The M. C. stands for Maurits Cornelis.
• Escher was a poor student at school. He didn’t get very good grades, but he was excellent at drawing.
• In 1922, Escher visited Italy and Spain. He was particularly inspired by the patterns and mathematical designs which decorated the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain.
• Escher’s work was focused on the idea of impossible reality – artwork which was inspired by mathematics and explored infinity and optical illusion.
• He also produced a lot of artwork which involved tessellation.
• M. C. Escher did not have any formal mathematical education, his understanding of the subject is plain to see in his artwork.
• Escher died on 27th March 1972 in a retirement home for artists. He was 73.
• He was awarded the Knighthood of the Order of Orange Nassau in 1955.

Escher can be regarded as the 'Father' of modern tessellations. He is famous for his impossible depictions like the one above, but he was a master of lino and wood cuts and produced many superbly crafted landscapes as well.

A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated over and over again covering a plane without any gaps or overlaps.

Another word for a tessellation is a tiling.

Tiling Definition

When you fit individual tiles together with no gaps or overlaps to fill a flat space like a ceiling, wall, or floor, you have a tiling.

Escher read Pólya's 1924 paper on plane symmetry groups. Escher understood the 17 plane symmetry groups described in the mathematician Pólya's paper, even though he didn't understand the abstract concept of the groups discussed in the paper.

Between 1936 and 1942 Escher produced 43 colored drawings with a wide variety of symmetry types while working on possible periodic tilings. He adopted a highly mathematical approach with a systematic study using a notation which he invented himself.

How to make your own tessellations. (Paper cut method)