Mystery, Classicism, Elegance: an Endless Chase After Magic
Mystery, Classicism, Elegance: an Endless Chase After Magic Douglas R. Hofstadter An essay in honor of Bruno Ernst, Hans de Rijk, and Brother Erich – Escher’s three deepest appreciators A Non-artist’s Non-artist? I am turning the pages of the large volume M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work, which I bought many, many years ago. I quickly flip past Meta- morphosis, Sky and Water, Drawing Hands, Relativity, Waterfall, Belvedere, Print Gallery, and many others – the familiar works that first grabbed me with a sudden, irresistible, visual pull (most of them awarded a full page or at least a half-page in that book), works that truly intoxicated me half a lifetime ago – and my eye is instead caught by much smaller images, images of Mediterranean seascapes or Italian hilltowns, images of a tree or a snow-covered barn, images that seem far simpler and far less eye-grabbing, far less interesting than those for which M.C. Escher has become world-famous. And yet, in so doing, I feel I am in deeper touch with M.C. Escher than I ever was before, and am appreciating, more than ever before, his artistry. And I use the word very carefully and very deliberately, for M.C. Escher has, perhaps inevitably, come under attack from segments of the contemporary art world as “not an artist.” Indeed, in the bookshops of art museums these days, one com- monly finds, along with hundreds of books devoted to virtually unknown but terribly trendy contemporary artists, a total blank when it comes to Escher’s works.
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