Maurits Cornelis Escher -- better known as M.C. Escher -- was a Dutch graphic artist known worldwide for creating impossible realities with his art. His unique and fascinating works of art explore and exhibit a wide range of mathematical ideas.
Escher was born in Leeuwarden, Holland in 1898. His family planned for him to follow in father's footsteps by studying architecture, but he failed numerous subjects. His poor grades and an aptitude for drawing and design eventually led him to a career in the graphic arts. His work went almost unnoticed until the 1950s, but by 1956, he had given his first important exhibition, was written up in Time magazine, and had acquired a worldwide reputation. Among his greatest admirers were mathematicians, who recognized in his work an extraordinary visualization of mathematical principles. This was all the more remarkable in that Escher had no formal mathematics training beyond secondary school.
As his work developed, he drew great inspiration from the cool mathematical ideas he read about, often working directly from structures in plane and projective geometry, and eventually capturing the essence of non-Euclidean geometries. He was also fascinated with paradox and "impossible" figures, and used an idea of Roger Penrose’s to develop many intriguing works of art. Thus, for the student of mathematics, Escher’s work encompasses two broad areas: the geometry of space, and what we may call the logic of space.
