The Perfect gift for any Escher fan: a luxurious, large-format volume featuring pop-up renditions of some of his most famous works.
Instantly recognizable to millions around the world, M.C. Escher's works represent an endlessly fascinating marriage of art and mathematics.
Exploring themes of infinity and paradox, impossible geometry and warped perspective, Escher's world is one of playful imagination and the unexpected, executed with precision and exquisite attention to detail.
Courtney Watson McCarthy's ingenious pop-ups and pull tabs cause Escher's vision to leap off the flat page into stunning 3-D images. She has effectively captured both the artistic beauty and geometric precision of Escher's work.
Think of a graphic artist and one name is sure to spring to mind: M. C. Escher. The world renowned Dutch artist, Maurits Cornelis Escher, is best-known for his seemingly impossible graphic designs, including Ascending and Descending or Sky and Water.
Escher was an inexhaustible artist who continued to work in his small studio in the retirement home where he spent the last two years of his life, dying in 1972. He created nearly 450 lithographs and wood cuts and more than 2,000 drawings and sketches. If that were not enough to cement his reputation, he illustrated books and designed tapestries, postage stamps, and murals. Remarkably, he failed his high school exams but was finally able to study architecture and design. After only one week he switched to graphic arts and the rest is history.
Escher left school in 1922 and toured Italy and Spain. Marrying in 1924 he and Jetta Umiker moved to Rome where they remained for eleven years while he traveled and sketched his way around Italy. These sketches formed the basis for much of his later work. Later residence in Switzerland and back in the Netherlands further deepened his eye for the mathematical possibilities intrinsic to art.
Courtney Watson McCarthy's ingenious pop-ups and pull tabs cause Escher's vision to leap off the flat page into stunning 3-D images. She has effectively captured both the artistic beauty and geometric precision of Escher's work.
"Waterfall," the cover art is remarkable enough in its flat depiction of water that seems to flow up grade, around three right angles, and down onto a water wheel, to begin a new endless loop. Then, compare the pop-up on pages 13-14. It captures the essence of Escher who once said, "My work is a game, a very serious game." Both sides of each piece that comprises the structure are drawn in exquisite detail, adding to our enjoyment of the piece.
Another prime example of Escher's genius is the two symmetry drawings, No. 76 (Horse/Bird) and No. 88 (Seahorse). Or, is it just one drawing? The four panels present as upside down seahorses. Pull the tab, however, and horses and birds spill across the four panels as they are revealed.
The genius of Escher is undeniable. This beautiful coffee table book stakes a solid claim to the genius of Courtney McCarthy. Her design and execution of the seven pop-ups and three flat engravings clearly rank her among the best artists in this difficult genre. It is no wonder that the Escher estate chose her to execute these works. A graphic designer and freelance paper engineer Watson lives in upstate New York. Martin Howard has provided a brief introduction to the book and to each graphic.
