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Revision as of 06:33, 11 June 2002 by Tarquin (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)M. C. Escher, full name Maurits Cornelis Escher, (born June 17, 1898 in Leeuwarden, died March 27, 1972) was a Dutch artist most known for his woodcuttings, which tend to feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, and interlocking geometric patterns which change gradually into completely different forms. Well known examples of his work include Drawing Hands, a work in which two hands are shown drawing each other, Sky and Water, in which plays on light and shadow convert fish in water into birds in the sky, and Ascending and Descending, in which lines of people ascend and descend stairs infinitely in a loop, on a construction which is impossible to build and possible to draw only by taking advantage of quirks of perception and perspective. Escher's work has a strong mathematical component, and many of the worlds which he drew are built around impossible objects such as the Necker cube and the Penrose triangle.
Most of the prints associated with him were only sketched out by him. The full prints only occurred after he died.
See also Gödel, Escher, Bach.