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!!

Wishlist for the USA trip

For last 3 months I have been traveling. I have been wanting to write about few experiences that I really really cherished. I got a chance to see some real masterpieces of arts and architecture. These works are so great that you just feel like surrendering yourself in front of them. The analogy that comes to my mind is they are like frozen poetries. Like what they say in ecology ‘whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts’, a poem is much more than the words it uses... much else… much divine…. Like for example Tagore’s poems, or Khalil Jibran’s, Ba Bha Borkar’s  poems… or to take a completely opposite example Arun Kolhatkar’s poems. They are such an intense experience, completely out of world… So likewise these works are much more that their elements like lines, colours, shapes etc.

Before going to US, I had a wishlist of seeing 5 things-

1) M.C. Escher’s work at National Gallery of Art DC

2) Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh at Museum of Modern Art NY

3) Falling Water- a house built by Architect Frank Loyd Wright in Pennsylvania

4) Niagara Falls

5) Grand Canyon

I could make it to first four. Grand Canyon is still remaining. But what the hell… I do have a visa for 10 years :)

Seeing these works has been such intense experience that it will be a crime if I don't blog about it. Needless to say... string of blog posts will follow as I pen them down one by one... so stay tuned  ;)

सावळी

New York च्या Museum of Modern Arts मधे एका painting नी मनाची विलक्षण पकड घेतली. इतकी की ते डोळ्यासमोरून हालेच ना. 

Henri Rousseau चं The Sleeping Gypsy. त्याच्या स्वतःच्याच शब्दात या चित्राबद्दल सांगायचं तर “A wandering Negress, a mandolin player, lies with her jar beside her (a vase with drinking water), overcome by fatigue in a deep sleep. A lion chances to pass by, picks up her scent yet does not devour her. There is a moonlight effect, very poetic.”

ते चित्र बघून आल्यावर मनात शब्दांची गर्दी झाली. ती कागदावर उतरवण्याचा हा प्रयत्न. 

सावळी

वर आभाळ सावळे, चंद्र फाकतसे प्रभा

डोळे मिटले सांगती, गुज अंतरीचे नभा

नार सावळी देखणी, धरेवरची चांदणी

पेंगुळल्या सुरांसंगे, घेई थकून विसावा

सावळा तो देह तिचा, निरागस अशी काया

भय नसे जिवाचेही, मन आनंदाची छाया

कोण कुठली ही नार, पहुडली भुईवर 

वनराज अचंबित, जणू निरखिसी तया