M. C. Escher Visions of Symmetry. Notebooks, Perodic Drawings, and Related Work

by Doris Schattschneider

The only book to combine illustrations of M.C. Escher's notebooks with the complete body of his symmetry drawings (180 of which were unpublished before this book). It offers a fascinating journey of discovery for Escher afficionados of all kinds, including artists, designers, historians, mathematicians, and scientists. "A study of Escher's art and thoughts and an intellectual biography of the artist."--Choice. 430 illustrations.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Mathematics, Reference, Art Design, Biography

Paperback

First published November 21, 1990

Reviews

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful book strikes the exact proper balance of biographic detail and expository analysis on the one hand, and beautiful reproductions of the artist's artwork from prints, installations, and above all personal sketchbooks on the other hand. It's essentially a narrowly specialist biography: its focus is Escher's artistic and intellectual oeuvre on regular tessellations of the plane, and how his understanding and output in this field evolved over his lifetime. That said, the book is full of human detail; this fact is rapidly explainable by the enormous space that regular tesselations occupied in the mind and life of this artist.

My favorite piece of all (I hope that a quotation here in a review constitutes fair use) is a recollection from Escher's son:

"Father had an unusual inclination to recognize animal shapes in seemingly random patterns like clouds or wood grain, which served him well when developing his regular patterns of interlocking animals. . . . The wall in the small downstairs washroom was decorated with irregular swirls of green, yellow, red and brown, created by splashing movements of a brush. Father . . . would take a pencil and emphasize with a line here, a shade there, some portion of the wall pattern. . . . For us children that washroom became a special attraction because, as the months went by, the originally drab, uninteresting wall came alive with faces. Every few days a new one would appear, laughing, sad, grotesque or solemn and I remember how I would scan that wall on my visits to the toilet, hoping to discover some new personality."

The thought of Maurits Cornelis on the pot, preoccupied with identifying and delineating bizarre figures in the chaos of the wall paint next to the toilet while performing his ablutions (not to mention the thought of a houseful of children growing up scanning said wall for said figures while performing theirs) completely delights me.

[Genevieve C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yay! This gives a lot of biographical information on Escher and explores how he created his art. Wow.

[Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough documentation, cleanly presented.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book. Kind of a peek into his notebook to give you an idea of design elements into his works. It gives you an excellent idea of how his mind works. Probably not the 1st Escher book you should get, becuase it's rather specialized. If you are only going to have a single escher book, this is probably not the best one. But if you have gone past being 'Interested' in Escher, and have progressed to being "Fascinated with" you need this book.

Addenda:

I have decided what this is like.

When you get a "Deluxe anniversary edition" of your one of our favorite movies they have a "The making of" video. (Or in the case of LOTR, about 125 of them) THIS is "The making" of M.C. Escher: The Complete Works"

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most in depth of the books I've read on Escher, although it only deals with one part of his work -- the regular divisions of the plane. It traces the origins of his work on tilings through his notebooks, which are all translated in the book; gives full page reproductions of all 137 numbered drawings, and 14 unnumbered drawings, with notes on each one; and discusses the mathematical and other questions related to the works. Very interesting, although somewhat technical in places.

[Bill Wells · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book! The focus of looking at Escher's work as it relates to mathematics gives you a whole new insight. The examination of his notebooks and research material was very enlightening. Maybe not for the casual fan or someone who is looking for an introduction to his work, but a wonderful book for someone interested in how an artist's ideas germinate and the history involved in that.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mmmmm....Escher...very cool.

[Kathleen]

This book further enhance my love for M.C. Escher. Symmetry is a beautiful thing.

[mentalexotica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mindblown. If you can get yourself to stop looking at the pictures you might even read the book.