Maurits C. Escher—Master of the Infinite

Abstract

You will not find his name in many art books, for he was largely ignored by the art community. His pictures do not adorn the walls of the world’s great museums, for he loathed publicity. If you wish to see his art, look for it in books on mathematics or physics, for he felt a closer kinship to the world of science than to his fellow artists. Unknown but to a few throughout most of his lifetime, he suddenly rose to fame during the last fifteen years of his life, but his genius was not universally recognized until after his death. For if there has ever been an artist who depicted the mathematical curiosities of the world around us, it was Maurits Cornelis Escher.

Deep, deep infinity! Quietness. To dream away from the tensions of daily living; to sail over a calm sea at the prow of a ship, toward a horizon that always recedes; to stare at the passing waves and listen to their monotonous soft murmur; to dream away into unconsciousness…

—Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898–1972)