Mathematically Inspired: M.C. Escher

Maurits Cornelis Escher icknamed "Mauk",[2] was born in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, in a house that forms part of the Princessehof Ceramics Museum today. He was the youngest son of civil engineer George Arnold Escher and his second wife, Sara Gleichman. In 1903, the family moved to Arnhem where he attended primary school and secondary school until 1918.

During his lifetime, Escher created 448 lithographs, woodcuts and wood engravings and over 2000 drawings and sketches. His work portrays mathematical relationships among shapes, figures and space and many of his drawings are composed around interlocking figures (tessellations) and impossible objects. Escher used vivid contrasts of black and white to enhance different dimensions and integrated into his works were mirror images of cones, spheres, cubes, rings and spirals.

By the 1950s Escher had become highly popular and gave lectures around the world. He received the Order of Oranje Nassau in 1955. In 1958 he was featured in Time magazine and had his first important exhibition in Washington. Escher’s work continued to be popular and he traveled several times to North America for lectures and to see his son George who was living in Canada. In 1970 he moved to Rosa-Spier house in Laren, Netherlands, a retirement home for artists, where he died on March 27, 1972.

Picture Still life with mirror (Stilleven met spiegel) was sold at Christie's - €16,730:

Gustave Courbet - The Origin of the World

This picture will be our next "acquisition".

L'Origine du monde, 1866, Oil on canvas, H. 46; W. 55 cm:

Our choice - Tahitian Women

So we have decided to add to our virtual Art portfolio P.Gauguin's picture "Tahitian Women". 1891, Oil on canvas, H. 69; W. 91.5 cm

Post-Impressionism: Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin was Born on June 7, 1848 in Paris, France. He have became friends with Camille Pissarro and met other artists including Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh.

From 1891-93, Gauguin lived in Tahiti where he spent considerable time working on his sculpture and woodcuts. In 1893, he returned to France where he prepared for his exhibition at Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris which was not considered to be a success.

Gauguin returned to Tahiti in 1895 : “it was a period of intense creativity, during which he painted and sculpted a great deal and seemed to go further in his metaphysical questioning, obsessed by the thought of death”. However, in April 1897, he learned of the death of his daughter Aline, to whom he was deeply attached. “Gauguin tried unsuccessfully to kill himself by taking arsenic. Physically and morally shaken, he took an office job in Papeete, which allowed him to earn a living for a while. He seemed to become detached from his own work. When Maurice Denis wrote to him asking if he would participate in an exhibition of the Nabis in Paris, he replied in June 1899 ‘I no longer paint except on Sundays and holidays’.”

 

 

So we are thinking of what to include in our collection... Can you advise?