M.C.Escher at ArtScience MuseumM.C.Escher at ArtScience Museum

JOURNEY TO INFINITY: ESCHER’S WORLD OF WONDER

Metamorphosis

M.C. Escher created a world in which whirls of transformations are based on different kinds of tessellations and where abstract shapes change into concrete forms. A world where birds can gradually transform into fishes or a lizard morph into the cell of a honey comb. At times, transformations lead to opposite combinations such as day and night, or good and evil.

Escher did not limit his research to the regular division of the plane; he was also fascinated by reflective surfaces as depicted in his famous self-portrait Hand with Reflecting Sphere.

 

M.C. Escher, Sky and Water I

M.C. Escher
Sky and Water I
1938
Woodcut
The Liberty Collection, USA

The metamorphosis is reflected by the opposition of Sky and Water. The print is divided into two equivalent parts: the black color representing the birds transformed into the sea opposed to the white tint of the fishes gradually morphing into the sky.

M.C. Escher, Hand with Reflecting Sphere

M.C. Escher
Hand with Reflecting Sphere
1935
Lithograph
The Liberty Collection, USA

M.C. Escher created this self-portrait in his studio in Roma, Italy which is entirely reflected into the sphere. He was fascinated by reflecting spheres which bring the viewer to the centre of the scene no matter where he positions himself.

M.C. Escher, Metamorphosis II

M.C. Escher
Metamorphosis II
1939
Woodcut in three colors
The Liberty Collection, USA

This masterpiece of M.C. Escher begins with the word metamorphose in a black rectangle, followed by smaller metamorphic forming geometries from grid to checkered pattern, which then become tessellation of different animals, transforming into blocks, rectangles and architecture, where shapes finally transmute into the word metamorphose. They then tie back to the very beginning of the artwork creating an endless composition where beginning and end are the same.