Seeing the impossible in Escher's drawings<\/p>\n
By Tam Notosusanto<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Have you ever dreamed of entering an Escher
\ndrawing?<\/p>\n
If you have, then it would have been a bizarre experience.
\nImagine climbing the steps of a stairway that instead leads you
\ndownstairs. Or encountering a waterfall where the water that
\ncascades down ends up on top again.<\/p>\n
That is the world of M.C. Escher's drawings, in which the
\nrules of perspective are flaunted and the impossible occurs. In
\nthe drawings of this legendary Dutch artist, animals form a
\npattern in which they gradually become an entirely different
\nspecies. He even turns angels into devils and vice versa. If you
\ntake a glance at his Belvedere, for example, and think it an
\nordinary drawing, look again. Each one of his works plays tricks
\nwith your eyes and boggles your mind.<\/p>\n
Now you have the chance to marvel at the artist's
\ningeniousness in an exhibition of Escher's masterpieces, held by
\nErasmus Huis from Aug. 4 to Aug. 21, 1999. Among the exhibits,
\nthere is also a video installation showing a 20-minute
\ndocumentary on Escher, which includes some of his drawings
\ninterestingly presented in animated form.<\/p>\n
\"He used a visual illusion that breaks up the reality we
\nknow,\" said art enthusiast Amir Sidharta. \"Most artists try to
\ndepict reality as it is, to mimic it. Escher instead questions
\nmany things in that reality, and manifested it in something
\nvisually interesting.\"<\/p>\n
\"His work is actually surrealistic,\" said Wagiono Sunarto, a
\ngraphic design professor at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts.
\n\"But unlike the explosive surrealism of Dali and others, Escher's
\nwork is surrealistic in the way it transforms a certain reality
\ninto another reality. He can suddenly have a strange point of
\nview, in the same way you can put a camera at a weird angle
\nbefore taking a picture.\"<\/p>\n
Maurits Cornelis Escher was born in 1898 in Leeuwarden,
\nHolland. In 1919 he spent some time at the engineering school in
\nDelft before moving to the School for Architectural and
\nDecorative Arts in Haarlem. Instead of studying architecture, he
\nstudied drawing from nature and woodcutting techniques under the
\ntutelage of the artist Jessurun de Mesquita. After graduation, he
\ntraveled around the world, and lived in Rome, Italy, where he got
\nmarried and had three sons. After that, he lived in Switzerland
\nand Belgium, before settling down in Baarn, The Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Before 1935, Escher's work was not particularly unique
\ncompared to the work of Dutch artists of his time. Only after
\nthat year did he begin producing pieces now considered uniquely
\n\"Escherian\".<\/p>\n
In his book on Escher, art critic Bruno Ernst wrote: \"The
\nimportant element of his work after 1935 is precisely that he
\nresearched very specific subjects that intrigued him and then
\ncaptured each new discovery that surprised and astonished him in
\na print, for the purpose of communicating to others his
\nenthusiasm about these new discoveries.\"<\/p>\n
In Waterfall, for example, one of his best-loved prints, the
\nwater ostensibly falls down from the top of a tower. But if we
\nlook again carefully, then we see that the waterway through which
\nthe water travels is actually a flat, one-story surface. How can
\nthis be possible?<\/p>\n
\"The nucleus of the image in Waterfall consists of three
\nimpossible triangles that are linked together,\" explained Ernst.
\n\"It emphatically gives us the sensation of seeing the
\nimpossible.\"<\/p>\n
Sunarto finds Escher's work exceptional because of its
\nmeasured quality. At a time when artists tended to be emotional,
\nexpressive or employ a softer harmony in their work, Escher
\nturned the logic of scales and stereometry into masterpieces.<\/p>\n
\"He would begin by making some rules, on which he made his
\ncreations. Next, he twisted all the logic and rules to express
\nhimself,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Sunarto said there are two aspects in an Escher drawing. One
\nis the virtuoso craftsmanship. The second is Escher's particular
\nphilosophy, having the space in the sketch not just as a space
\nfor drawing, but as a space for reflection, a space for
\nexistence. Escher delivered his unusual concept by bringing that
\nspace further into more improbable terrain.<\/p>\n
Escher's style and ideas became uniquely his own. Sunarto said
\nthat although his work was legendary and widely loved by his
\nstudents and fellow artists, Escher is never included in any art
\ncurriculum because he doesn't represent any significant genre in
\nart history.<\/p>\n
\"Escher has always been in a class of his own,\" said Sunarto.
\n\"Nobody before him did what he did, and nobody ever used his
\nstyle after him.\"<\/p>",
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