29 July 06
An Afternoon With Escher
The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento currently is hosting an Escher show that is visiting from the Portland Museum of Art.
Escher was everywhere male when I was in boarding school, along with Tolkien. Posters were hung in the boys’ studies, much like Mucha and Monet were hung in ours; the appeal was both cerebral and “difficult,” portending more meaning than was perhaps there.
Today I found an artist who was a master printmaker. His “space perception” pieces were very late and followed extensive architectural, landscape, and life studies. He lived in Italy for a while and was mesmerized by the Alhambra and the intricate moorish tiling.
The best thing, I thought, were the book plates he designed for people: linocuts in black and white, distilling down a person’s essence into what they’d want thought about them on the endpages of their books. This design format went the way of the dodo just like the album cover but gosh I’d like to see it reclaimed… just as it was wonderful to see Escher today being enjoyed by women as well as men.
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Reading this, I was also struck by your mention of Mucha, who’s not that well-known in North America. We visited a beautiful new museum devoted to his work in Prague a few years ago where I fell in love with his work! So much of what is reproduced is the decorative Art Nouveau style design, but there’s really more to his work. Have you seen his works in real life, Pica?
Marja-Leena, sadly, my knowledge of Mucha is restricted to that time in my life and the Athena poster shop in London. I’m interested to find out more, though, thanks to your encouragement.