M. C. Escher Educational Posters, Prints, Books, Video, Links for Learning

Maurits Cornelis Escher is known for his impossible contructions of spatial illusions and geometric patterns (tesselations) that were reproduced as woodcuts, lithographs and mezzotints.

When his poor grades kept him from following his father’s profession of civil engineering, he went on to study design and drawing.

Though he did not have formal mathematical education past secondary school his work was inspired by mathematical ideas and he was greatly respected by mathematicians.

Posters celebrating the life and times of artist and mathematician M. C. Escher include famous images of his finely crafted illusions and geometric patterns for the visual arts and social studies classrooms, and home schoolers.

	• M. C. ESCHER POSTERS History of Art | History of Posters
		Puddle Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com
		Eye Wall Poster by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com barewalls.com • eye posters
		Waterfall Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com
		Hand with Sphere Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com
		Drawing Hands Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com
		Bond of Union Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com
		Ascending and Descending Wall Poster by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com barewalls.com
		Concave and Convex Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com
		Three Worlds Fine Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com barewalls.com • more trees posters
		Day and Night Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- AllPosters.com Art.com • bird posters
		Circle Limit IV Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com • mandala posters
		Belvedere Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com Did you know?- A belvedere is a raised turret or pavillion.
		Mobius Strip / Ants Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- AllPosters.com Art.com barewalls.com • insect posters & charts
	A Möbius strip is a two-dimensional surface with only one side. To construct a Möbius strip in three dimensions take a rectangular strip of paper and mark point A on one end and point B on the other, give the strip a half twist (180 degrees) and join the two ends together. It is now possible to start at a point A on the surface and draw a line along the length of the strip that passes through the point which is apparently on the other side of the surface from A. [portrait of August Ferdinand Mobius]
		Rind Fine-Art Print by M.C. Escher available at- Art.com AllPosters.com
	Encounter Art Print
	Cycle Art Print
	Tower of Babel, M. C. Escher, Art Print Escher's Tower of Babel is an example of 3 point perspective. • architecture posters
	Double Planetoid, Art Print by M.C. Escher
	Reptiles Art Print • reptiles posters
	Skull with Cigarette, M. C. Escher, Art Print M. C. Escher mocks the smoker - Surgeon General's Warning: Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, and May Complicate Pregnancy • addiction posters
	This font set is based on the lettering styles and optical artwork of Dutch artist Mauritius Cornelius (M.C.) Escher. Windows and Mac. Escher Volume

“He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.”
M. C. Escher
b. 6-17-1898; Leeuwarden, Netherlands
d. 3-27-1972; Laren

• M. C. Escher BOOKS, VIDEO

M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work -- by M. C. Escher, et al; Hardcover - M. C. Escher’s art, with its extraordinary manipulations of space, time and perspective becomes ever more popular and sought after, even enigmatic. A full-fledged biography as well as a complete record of his graphic work; virtually all of Escher’s correspondence, travel journals, his father’s journals and 606 illustrations, including 36 plates in full color.

Escher on Escher: Exploring the Infinite by M. C. Escher - The artist speaking in his own words about his own art, with 120 accompanying illustrations. Of particular interest, and never before published, is the complete text of a series of lectures Escher was scheduled to give in the United States, but which were canceled due to illness. These lectures provide an overview of the entire body of Escher’s graphic art; other sections of the book include magazine articles he wrote in the 1940s and ’50s for professional publications of limited circulation as well as personal letters and speeches that further illuminate his life and work.

The M. C. Escher Jigsaw Puzzle Book by M. C. Escher - A clever, compact book that lets readers explore eight of M. C. Escher’s famous drawings in two-sided jigsaw puzzles. Their brilliant patterns will intrigue and entertain and, after the fun, the puzzles can be pressed back in the book for safe storage. M.C. Escher's complex, interlocking images of fish, birds, reptiles, and butterflies--known as tesselation drawings--made him one of the most popular artists of the 20th century.

The M. C. Escher Coloring Book: 24 Images to Color by M.C. Escher - Magical interlocking images of fish, birds, reptiles, and butterflies made M. C. Escher one of the most popular artists of the 20th century. Anyone who loves to draw wll be fascinated by the paradoxes and puzzles found in his pictures. [see inside]

M. C. Escher Kaleidocycles by Doris Schattschneider - Explore the forms, color and surface design of M. C. Escher- each geometric model begins as a 2-dimensional design, the flat pattern folds into a three dimensioanl form, covered with Escher’s design. each kaleidocycles then rotates through its center, at each turn transforming Escher’s art into bold symmetric sculpture.

Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter - Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel. It also looks at the prospects for computers and artificial intelligence (AI) for mimicking human thought. For the general reader and the computer techie alike, this book still sets a standard for thinking about the future of computers and their relation to the way we think.

Hofstadter’s great achievement in Gödel, Escher, Bach was making abstruse mathematical topics (like undecidability, recursion, and ‘strange loops’) accessible and remarkably entertaining. Borrowing a page from Lewis Carroll (who might well have been a fan of this book), each chapter presents dialogue between the Tortoise and Achilles, as well as other characters who dramatize concepts discussed later in more detail. Allusions to Bach's music (centering on his Musical Offering) and Escher’s continually paradoxical artwork are plentiful here. This more approachable material lets the author delve into serious number theory (concentrating on the ramifications of Gödel’s Theorem of Incompleteness) while stopping along the way to ponder the work of a host of other mathematicians, artists, and thinkers.

The Mobius Strip by Clifford A. Pickover - The road that leads from the Möbius strip—a common-sense-defying continuous loop with only one side and one edge, made famous by the illustrations of M.C. Escher—goes to some of the strangest spots imaginable. It takes us to a place where the purely intellectual enters our daily world: where our outraged senses, overloaded with grocery bills, the price of gas, and what to eat for lunch, are expected to absorb really bizarre ideas. (book description)

Mosaic and Tessellated Patterns by John S. Wilson - As old as ancient Rome, tesselatied patterns cn be seen in many palces tody: in Victor Vasarely's black and white paintings, in the designs of Ensor Holiday and M. C. Escher, in spirograph drawings, and even in comuter art. The author, a research chemist, artist and teacher, has been creating these dazzling "op art" designsfor years, Now he brings his special expertise to thes unusual coloring book. You will find complete information on tesselations and their creation, including: Definition of a tessellation, history ot tessellated designs, beginning with their origin in Rome, basic kinds of tessellations and how they are formed, adn detailed instructions for creating your own unique designs from common geometrical shapes.

Introduction to Tessellations by Dale Seymour, Jill Britton - This clear introduction to tessellations and other intriguing geometric designs help students explore polygons, regular polygons and combinations of regular polygons, Escher-type tessellations, Islamic art designs, and tessellating letters. Step-by-step directions for creating tessellations support discussions of the symmetries and transformations involved. The companion book of overhead masters contains more than 270 patterns students can use to create and analyze polygonal, regular, demi-regular, and demi-regular tessellations; star polygons, tessellating curves; and polyominoes. Reproducible. Grades 6-12

The Fantastic World of M. C. Escher Video (2000)

The Life and Works of M. C. Escher Video (1999) - Perhaps the most instantly recognizable graphic artist in history, M.C. Escher tirelessly produced eye-bending lithographs and woodcuts that played with the viewers’ sense of perspective and dimension. The Life and Works of M.C. Escher follows the man from his childhood in the Netherlands through his extended stay in southern Italy, and finally northward to Switzerland and back home, where he produced some of his most challenging work. Including beautiful footage of the Mediterranean landscapes, interviews with Escher, and many of his works (both famous and obscure), this video presents a classic portrait of a man obsessed with his work, sacrificing his family life for the sake of his art. Though he achieved some fame before his death in 1972, it seems certain that he would be amazed at his ever-growing popularity since then. Not flashy, not flamboyant, Escher simply made art that excited him.

Masters of Illusion Video (1991) - This documentary hosted by James Burke is a fascinating examination of the concept of how we see things, specifically how images that appear to our eyes to be three-dimensional are rendered convincingly on flat surfaces. Starting out in a movie studio special effects lab, Burke explains how visual illusions practiced today actually began during the Renaissance, when painters first mastered the skills of incorporating the idea of depth into paintings. The principle of ‘linear perspective,’ in which parallel lines all diverge to a common vanishing point, sounds complicated, but the examples shown in this documentary make the idea perfectly clear to the layperson. By way of contrast, paintings completed before the Renaissance are shown, and it's immediately clear to the viewer that artists who hadn't mastered perspective drew scenes that appear flat on the canvas. But when artists such as Brunelleschi and Michelangelo practiced using perspective, art suddenly jumped forward. Quotes from Leonardo da Vinci's writings, in which he talked about perspective and the effects of light, are offered along with examples of his paintings that illustrate beautifully how a master used a scientific principle to create great art. This is an unusual documentary that makes fascinating a subject that most people have never considered, though it relates to things we see everyday.

LINKS FOR LEARNING : M. C. ESCHER

• M. C. Escher, National Gallery of Art
• M. C. Escher, ThinkQuest
• M. C. Escher, Brief Biography
• H.S.M. Coxeter, geometer

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