M.C. Escher's work at NGA (DC)

M. C. Escher is a Dutch Graphic Artist. I don’t know how to describe his work so I will just put a picture below for the readers to understand. They are basically graphics in form of lithographs, wood cuts, wood engravings and marble or wood carvings.

Reptiles 1943 Lithograph

 

Display of Escher's Work at NGA

I first saw his work at my family friend's house. There was a book that illustrated his work. I was just dumbfounded seeing that. The way Escher plays with 3 dimensions, way he twists axes, planes, way he alters virtual reality and way he fools an eye’s perception is incredible. 

When it was final that I will be visiting US, I tried to find if there were any galleries that displayed Escher’s work. National Gallery of Art in Washington DC had some of his work. I was anyway going  to visit a friend in DC. So it worked well. However when I actually reached NGA, I learned that Escher’s work is not available for a regular display. If you want to see his work you have to take a prior appointment. Though I first time could not get the appointment luckily I got a chance to visit DC again just after a few weeks. And this time I could catch hold of the person who was in charge for appointments. He confirmed appointment for the next day and asked me to mail him the works that I wanted to see. After browsing NGA website I sent him a list of about 23 works.

I was so so excited! I was seeing hand drawn lithographs. These very lines were drawn by Escher himself. All the lithographs had his signature in the bottom left corner. Some of his most famous works were right in front of my eyes. I could not have enough of looking at those graphics. Objects transforming from 2D to 3D, from 3D back to 2D, one shape emerging out of other, its perfect and complex geometry. His lines command your eyes in such a way that they will have to travel exactly as he wants them to. Those lines construct such marvelous illusion that they almost cheat reality. And yet, they are very very real, right in front of your eyes…

What I love about his work is its originality…. It’s something totally out of world… created with just two tools… mind and pencil.. that’s it….If you see his works like Reptiles, Magic Mirror, Encounter, Metamorphosis, Day & Night, Bond of Union, Drawing Hands you will know what I am talking about…

Any architect if sees his work will instantly feel a connect … there is something in his graphics that has a reflection of architecture…  and he was indeed a student of architecture but didn’t complete it. When I was looking at his wiki page I learned that he made very poor grades in schools… a classic example of how little justice our education systems end up doing to ones abilities…

Two years ago I fell in love with this artist’s work and now I was seeing in front of my eyes some of the most precious and most beautiful pieces of his art…lucky me!!