Group Project - Cycle from Frank Dumont on Vimeo.
Can the interrelated concepts and creations of nature ever be explained? Marius Cornelius Escher spent his lifetime searching for ways to describe the patterns and perceptions he encountered. He believed every illusion is the result of a rational construction. And through his journey to discover how space can be depicted on a flat surface, Escher created many artworks of lithography and wood carvings that demonstrates "the nonsensicalness of some of what we take to be irrefutable certainties."
Reptiles, by Marius Cornelius Escher, 1943 (Lithography)
Among the finest prints Escher had produced, one of them would be the Reptiles done in 1943. It depicts 7 lizards crawling in a circular motion over an ordinary desk filled with items such as a book, a glass cup, a set square, a book labelled JOB, and a dodecahedron (a polyheron with twelve flat surfaces). Despite it being monohromatic, the great contrast in tonal value brought life to the lizards crawling over the desk. As the reptiles continues in a cycle, the cohesion between them led the viewer's attention in an anti-clockwise motion.
As seen from the use of geomerical shapes (such as rectangles, triangles, circles, pentagons and hexagons) and the overall symmetrical composition of this print, we can conclude that the mood of this work is rather serene.
The concept of tessellation is also apparent in Reptiles as the lizard crawls to life out of the print and back again. The printed reptiles are constructed in a symmetrical way such that lizards of the same shade of grey crawl in one direction without leaving gaps or overlappings. These interlocking lizards showed his analytical approach to the nature around him.
Apart from tessellation, the incorporation of three-dimensional lizards and two-dimensional lizards in Reptiles challenges the viewer's visual perception. The use of realistic imagery to present hallucinatory scenes that defy our common sense about lizards makes this work a surreal one.
"Only those who attempt the absurd will achieve the impossible. I
think it’s in my basement...let me go
upstairs and check.” -Escher
Dance (II), by Henri Matisse, 1910 (Oil on canvas)
Carrying on, I would like to compare Reptiles by M. C. Escher to Dance (II) by Henri Matisse. Escher's Reptile is a monochrome lithography, unlike Matisse's which shows five dancing nudes in Fauvist colour palette- warm red against cool blue backgroud. Escher himself did not encourage any over-reading or interpretation of his images, he consider his prints "a report of his discoveries" to put concepts on to paper in different ways. This is very different from Matisse's Dance (II) which seeks to evoke a peaceful physical state in the viewer through portraying emotional liberation. Overall, Matisse appears much more emotional and primitive in his art-making as compared to Escher.
However, there is one prominent similarity that could be observed in both works, that is, the rhythmical flow of movement in both paintings ---the circular motion of the dancers and the cycle of the lizards. Both artists are also similar in their goals to pursue order and beauty through art, Escher hopes to express the rational norms behind patterns while Matisse direct the viewers to produce a deep satisfaction through expressing emotions in reconstructed reality.
Thanks for reading. :)
