ART MASTERPIECE: Day and Night, 1938 by M.C. Escher

Pronounced: Esh-erKeywords: Graphic Art, TessellationsGraphic Art: type of visual art made for commercial purposes. Examples are posters, advertise-ments, signs, book and magazine illustrations.Tessellations: mosaic patterns where the pieces fit together like a visual jigsaw puzzle. There is no background or foreground, and the outline of one figure becomes the boundary of another.Grade: 6thActivity: Making a TessellationVideo: There is a great video you can show that demonstrates the relationship between math and art in Escher's work. It can be found at this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kcc56fRtrKU

Meet the Artist: (5min)• He was born in 1898 in Holland. The M.C. Stands for Maurits Cornelius and his nickname

was ‘Mauk’• He didn’t do very well in school, but continued on through the university level, eventually

studying graphic arts. • Escher was Dutch, but as a young man moved to Italy and traveled across Europe. While

traveling, he met his wife, had three children and settled down outside of Rome. In 1935, he and his family moved to Switzerland. Unhappy there, he returned to Belgium and fi-nally to The Netherlands.

• He especially liked the floor tiles that he had seen in Spain. He became very interested in Mosaic, pattern and repetition and began to include it in his own art. Eventually he came to use a mathematical art technique called tessellations. Tessellations are mosaic pat-terns where the pieces fit together like a visual jigsaw puzzle. There is no background

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and foreground and the outline of one figure becomes the boundary of another. They are mostly seen in quilts, fabrics and wallpaper. Escher was one of the first to put a recogniz-able image into tessellations.

• He also liked to use the theme of metamorphosis or the complete change of an object, in his work. Birds transform to fish, fish to frogs and day turns into night.

• Escher was considered the foremost authority on graphic art. • Graphic art is the art or the science of drawing, especially according to mathematical

rules. His work was a sort of bridge between the scientific world and artistic imagination.• Escher was not a fan of modern art, and his art did not receive much attention until he

was about 52 years old. Although the key to Escher’s art is geometry: spheres, cubes and spirals, he did not claim any ability to understand mathematics. His original fans were physicists and mathematicians.

• He died in his home in 1973 of cancer.

Discussion:(10min)• Have you seen tessellations before? • Where? (floor tiles, rugs, mosaics, quilts, ceiling panels in ornate buildings?)• Where would you see them, any in the room? • What kind of lines do you see?• What kind of shapes do you see?• What would you title the painting? • Do you like it? Why or Why not? • Do you see a story in it or is it just nonsense?

Project: Making a Tessellation

Supplies Needed: 9x12” white paper-1 per student12x15” black construction paper for mounting- 1 per studentmasking tape-1 roll per tablepencilscolored pencils class setcolored markers class setfine tipped black markerstag board (or index cards) cut into 3”x3” squaresrulers class setscissors class set6-8 bottles of glueparent letter

Advance prep:

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Cut index cards into 3” x 3” squares and make sure pencils and colored pencils are sharpened.Trim the black construction paper to 12x15”. Copy and cut parent letter.

Mini lesson: (5 min)Have the students practice tracing their tessellation on a scratch piece of paper before begin-ning on their masterpiece. Stress the importance of lining the template up carefully.

Process: (30-40 min) (see photos below)• Explain that the students will transform a 3”square template, into an unusual shape that

they will tessellate onto a sheet of white paper.• Hand out 3” squares of tag board to the students to use as their template.• Have the students cut out a simple pattern along the top edge of the square (Figure A).

Then move it to the bottom edge of the square and tape it (Figure B). Make sure the cut piece does not rotate as it is moving to the opposite side. It should be taped directly across from the side it was cut from.

• Then, have the students cut out a pattern along one side edge of the square (Figure A). Then move it to the opposite edge and tape it (Figure B). Make sure the cut piece does not rotate as it is moving to the opposite side. It should be taped directly across from the side it was cut from. Careful formation of their tessellation shape will help ensure a quality final product. The more precise students can be at lining up the taped section, the more successful their tessellation will be.

• Begin with your white paper oriented horizontally (landscape) Starting at the center of the white paper, trace the outline of the template (Figure C). This will be your original template tracing.

• Shift the template up so that the bottom of the template now aligns with the line drawn when you traced the top of the original template and trace the template (figure C) You should only have to trace 3 sides here because the bottom line is already drawn from your original template tracing. Now shift the template down below the original tracing so that the top of the template aligns with the bottom of the original template tracing. You should only need to trace 3 sides here because the top line is already drawn from your original template tracing. You should now have three templates traced aligning vertically.

• Align the template to the right of the original template tracing. Trace the template and move it across the page horizontally, repeating the tracing of the template so the end result looks like a puzzle. Do the same moving the template across the page horizontally to the left of the original template.

• You should now have traced tessellations in what looks like a plus sign. The remaining templates will align on two existing sides. Continue to fill in the paper shifting the tem-plate, aligning it with your existing tessellations, and tracing. Repeat until the page is full. ****There is a very good chance that there will not be a perfect alignment of all the

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shapes. The students should be striving for a very close alignment, but there will be some leeway*****

• Outline all the shapes with a black marker (Figure D)• Turn your paper vertically and try to imagine what image your shapes look like. (i.e. alien,

pirate, football, animal). Add details to the inside of the shape in pencil so they all look identical. The students will use their imagination to come up with a name/title for their shape.

• Color the shapes with markers or colored pencils using alternating complementary colors (or light and dark colors).

• Outline the details of your shapes in black marker. • Mount your paper onto a larger piece of black construction paper. • Title and sign it at the bottom of the black paper using a white crayon or colored pencil.• Mount the parent letter to the back.

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Figure A After you sketched the shape - cut out the pieces. Do not ever throw away any cutouts! They should be attached to the opposite sides.

Figure BSlide down the top piece and tape it to the bottom side of the square.

Slide the left cutout to the right side of the square and tape it. Make sure not to rotate the cutout pieces when taping or the tessellation will not fit correctly.

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Figure C Trace your tessellation onto a drawing paper. It will fit together like a puzzle.

Figure D Trace your tessellations in black marker then add detail and color.

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