M.C. Escher: “Mathematics Made Visible”

M.C. Escher - Relativity - 1953 - Woodcut - 28.2 x 29.4 cm (11 1/8 x 11 5/8 in.) (click photo for larger image)Optical Art (which came to be known as “Op Art” in the 1960s) is a mathematically-themed form of non-representational art, which uses repetition of simple forms and colors to create vibrating effects, moiré patterns, foreground-background confusion, an exaggerated sense of depth, and other visual effects.

In a sense, all painting is based on tricks of visual perception: manipulating rules of perspective to give the illusion of three-dimensional space, mixing colors to create the impression of light and shadow, and so on. With Optical Art, the rules that the viewer's eye uses to try to make sense of a visual image are themselves the "subject" of the artwork.

Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972) experimented with Optical Art. Escher's work, although not non-representational, deals extensively with various forms of visual tricks and paradoxes. He became well-known for his detailed realistic prints that achieve bizarre optical and conceptual effects.

Escher’s mature style emerged after 1937 in a series of prints that combined meticulous realism with enigmatic  optical illusions. He portrayed with great technical virtuosity impossible architectural spaces and unexpected metamorphoses of one object into another. Sometimes referred to as the “father of modern tessellations,” Escher commonly used geometric grids to form intricate interlocking designs.

The work featured here, Relativity, is a lithograph, first printed in December 1953. It depicts a world in which the normal laws of gravity do not apply.