M. C. ESCHERM. C. ESCHER

IMMA MONTELLS ZER FEMOSA – SET

PUIGVERD DE LLEIDA - ASPA

All M.C. Escher works (c) 2009 The M.C. Escher Company - the Netherlands. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.mcescher.com

· Maurits Cornelis Escher was born on Maurits Cornelis Escher was born on June 17, 1898 in the Netherlands.June 17, 1898 in the Netherlands.

· At school he never had good marks, but he was very good at drawing.

· His father was a civil engineer.

· He started his studies in Architecture but he never finished them.

· At the age of 21 he went to an Art school.

· There he learnt how to make woodcuts.

Can you imagine what a woodcut is?

Wood? Cut?

· A woodcut is a technique for printing, using a piece of wood.

· An image is carved into the surface of a piece of wood.

· Ink is spread over the cut wood.

· Then paper you press paper against it.

· When the paper is pulled off of the wood, there is a picture on it.

All M.C. Escher works (c) 2009 The M.C. Escher Company - the Netherlands. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.mcescher.com

’Rind’

All M.C. Escher works (c) 2009 The M.C. Escher Company - the Netherlands. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.mcescher.com

Plane-filling Motif with Reptiles

· He is also famous for his lithography.

· Lithography is a technique for printing, similar to woodcut, but using a stone or a metal plate.

All M.C. Escher works (c) 2009 The M.C. Escher Company - the Netherlands. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.mcescher.com

· In 1922 he travelled to Spain. He visited Granada for the first time.

· There he visited the Alhambra. He was very impressed by the Morish (arabic) style, and he copied it in some of his tessellations.

· Escher travelled around Europe for many years.

· In 1924 he got married and lived in Italy, Rome, for twelve years. He liked Italian landscapes a lot.

· Escher is most famous for his tessellations.

· A tessellation is a picture that fits into itself like a puzzle.

· As a result the plane is covered with repetitions of a shape with no overlapping or gaps between the shapes.

Tessellation activity

All M.C. Escher works (c) 2009 The M.C. Escher Company - the Netherlands. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.mcescher.com

· He played with architecture, perspective and impossible spaces.

All M.C. Escher works (c) 2009 The M.C. Escher Company - the Netherlands. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.mcescher.com

’Relativity’

· Let’s have a look at some videos about his life and work.

(Click on: M. C. Escher at work)

All M.C. Escher works (c) 2009 The M.C. Escher Company - the Netherlands. All rights reserved. Used by permission. www.mcescher.com

· M. C. Escher died in 1972, in the Neatherlands.

Have a look at the picture gallery in http://www.mcescher.com/