notes on art...
| All M.C. Escher works & text (c) Cordon Art B.V.-Baarn-the Netherlands. All rights reserved. Used by permission. |
On one further occasion did my interest in the craft take the upper
hand again. This was in 1946 when I first made the acquaintance of the
old and highly respectable black art technique of the mezzotint, whose
velvety dark gray and black shades so attracted me that I devoted a
great deal of time to the mastery of this copper-plate intaglio, a
process that has today fallen almost entirely into disuse. But before
long it became clear that this was going to be too great a test of my
patience. It claims far too much time and effort from anyone who,
rightly or wrongly, feels he has no time to lose. Up to the present I
have, in all, produced no more than seven mezzotints, the last one
being in 1951.
I have never practiced any other type of intaglio. From the moment of
my discovery, I have deliberately left etching and copper-plate
engraving to one side. The reason for this can probably be traced to
the fact that I find it preferable to delineate my figures by means of
tone-contrast, rather than by linear contour. The thin black line on a
white background, which is characteristic of etching and
copper-engraving, would only be of use as a component part of a shaded
area, but it is not adequate for this purpose. Moreover, with
intaglio, one is much more tied to white as a starting point than is
the case with raised relief and planography. The drawing of a narrow
white line on a dark surface for which raised relief methods are
eminently suitable, is practically impossible with intaglio, while on
the other hand, a thin black line on a white background can be
satisfactorily achieved, albeit as a rather painstaking operation, in
woodcuts and wood-engravings.
The ideas that are basic to them often bear witness to my amazement and
wonder at the laws of nature which operate in the world around us. He
who wonders discovers that this is in itself a wonder. By keenly
confronting the enigmas that surround us, and by considering and
analyzing the observations that I had made, I ended up in the domain of
mathematics. Although I am absolutely without training or knowledge in
the exact sciences, I often seem to have more in common with
mathematicians than with my fellow artists.
On reading over what I wrote at the beginning of this introduction,
about the particular representational character of my prints, I feel it
may be rather illogical to devote so may words to it, not only here but
also beside each separate reproduction as well. It is a fact, however,
that most people find it easier to arrive at an understanding of an
image by the round-about method of letter symbols than by the direct
route. So it is with a view to meeting this need that I myself have
written the text. I am well aware that I have done this very
inadequately, but I could not leave it to anyone else, for - and here
is yet another reason for my astonishment - no matter how objective or
how impersonal the majority of my subjects appear to me, so far as I
have been able to discover, few if any of my fellow-men seem to react
in the same way to all that they see around them.
I have never practiced any other type of intaglio. From the moment of my discovery, I have deliberately left etching and copper-plate engraving to one side. The reason for this can probably be traced to the fact that I find it preferable to delineate my figures by means of tone-contrast, rather than by linear contour. The thin black line on a white background, which is characteristic of etching and copper-engraving, would only be of use as a component part of a shaded area, but it is not adequate for this purpose. Moreover, with intaglio, one is much more tied to white as a starting point than is the case with raised relief and planography. The drawing of a narrow white line on a dark surface for which raised relief methods are eminently suitable, is practically impossible with intaglio, while on the other hand, a thin black line on a white background can be satisfactorily achieved, albeit as a rather painstaking operation, in woodcuts and wood-engravings.
The ideas that are basic to them often bear witness to my amazement and wonder at the laws of nature which operate in the world around us. He who wonders discovers that this is in itself a wonder. By keenly confronting the enigmas that surround us, and by considering and analyzing the observations that I had made, I ended up in the domain of mathematics. Although I am absolutely without training or knowledge in the exact sciences, I often seem to have more in common with mathematicians than with my fellow artists.
On reading over what I wrote at the beginning of this introduction, about the particular representational character of my prints, I feel it may be rather illogical to devote so may words to it, not only here but also beside each separate reproduction as well. It is a fact, however, that most people find it easier to arrive at an understanding of an image by the round-about method of letter symbols than by the direct route. So it is with a view to meeting this need that I myself have written the text. I am well aware that I have done this very inadequately, but I could not leave it to anyone else, for - and here is yet another reason for my astonishment - no matter how objective or how impersonal the majority of my subjects appear to me, so far as I have been able to discover, few if any of my fellow-men seem to react in the same way to all that they see around them.
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