Max Weatherly

Edmonds
GWIC MC Escher
Public vs. Critically acclaimed/approved

Throughout his artistic career, as well as life, Mauris Cornelius Escher was always

changing. Based on various perspectives on life and views on the world around him, he was

changing what was projected in his works Regardless of all the changes he made, his efforts

went ignored and recognition was not given. It was a long road before his work began stirring

conversation and recognition within certain communities. Within the art realm his pieces went,

not unnoticed, rather ignored and underappreciated. The art critics could not make heads or tails

of him, so they just ignored his work (Ernst 19). The first community to recognize his work

was not for its value in art, but the commotion it caused with its physical impossibilities and

unique mathematical structures. He used geometric shapes in a way in his tessellations that had

not been done before in this manner. He was deemed the father of tessellation art and

mathematical artistic structures. To be specific, it was the mathematicians, crystallographers and

physicists who first showed great interest (Ernst 19). Sadly, whoever viewed his work without

having prior knowledge or experience with structures such as what was depicted in his works,

the pleasure would not be as great as if you had the proper education and competence.

Unfortunately, from his peers in the art community, who did not view him similarly, he was not

accepted and for the most part, simply ignored.

In the publics eye and pop culture, the 1960s was Eschers rise to stardom and popular

culture growth. His works began appearing on album covers, book covers, and posters/mass

prints began circulating all around the world. The World of Escher began selling puzzles, ties, t-

shirts, etc. with Eschers works all over them. Austria and the Netherlands have issued postage

stamps commemorating the artist and his works (M.C. Escher). Throughout the hippie
movement and psychedelic era, his works had substantial mental stimulation, and with the

heavy drug used affiliated with the time period, and the rebellious/anarchist-styled way of life

and thinking, Eschers works provided the artistic and cultural appreciation he had been seeking.

Until recently almost all Dutch print collections had omitted to build up any fair-sized section

of Eschers work (Ernst 19). Even his birth-country would not recognize his artistic abilities

until his popularity and fame throughout public avenues. Eventually, his art gained the national

and worldwide popularity and appreciation he had been seeking since his early inspirational

visits to the Alhambra.

Bibliography:

Ernst, Bruno, and M. C. Escher. The Magic Mirror of M.C. Escher. N.p.: Taschen, 2015. Print.

"M. C. Escher." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web.