M.C. Escher: 29 Masterworks: 29 Master Prints [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Nearly everyone will have seen some of the work of Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1970). His woodcuts and lithographs are largely based in mathematics and geometry, and provide endless fascination. Many of the two dimensional images Escher created simply could not exist in the three dimenional world, yet on paper they LOOK entirely plausible at first glance (for instance, "Ascending and Descending" and "Belvedere"), and this alone gives the mind of the viewer plenty to ponder. Escher also incorporated tessellations - images composed of repeating, interlocking shapes - into many of his pieces (such as in "Reptiles" or "Fish"), and he played with the idea of having different figures in the same composition existing on different planes, despite sharing the same space. For instance, a surface which is the floor for one figure may be a wall for another (see "Relativity").

This particular book is a very nice collection of some of Escher's most well-known pieces, and is very afordable. There are certainly more detailed books on Escher's life and work available, such as J.L. Locker's 200-page "The Magic of M.C. Escher," but "29 Master Prints" is a great alternative for those who simply want something visually stimulating to put on their coffee table, without too much text. Each print covers a full page (and these are large pages - approximately 14.5 x 10.5 inches), and is accompanied by a small amount of text on the facing page, giving the piece's title, date of completion, medium, dimensions, and a short blurb offering insights about the print, written by either Escher himself or one of several other authors. The explanations written by the artist are often delightfully witty. At the beginning of the book there is a short essay by Escher, "On Being a Graphic Artist."

One disappointment I found was that the print of "Metamorphosis III" is broken up into pieces to fit it all on one page, so you can't see it end-to-end. I would rather have seen this done as some sort of fold-out. Also, unfortunately, this book does not appear to be available in hardcover, so it is slightly less durable. Nevertheless, I would certainly recommend "29 Master Prints" to any fan of Escher's work.

Following is a list of the particular twenty-nine prints included:

"Rind" - on front cover

"Other World"

"Smaller and Smaller"

"Circle Limit III"

"Knots"

"Hand with Reflecting Sphere (Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror)"

"Balcony"

"Circle Limit IV (Heaven and Hell)"

"Ascending and Descending"

"Day and Night"

"Regular Division of the Plane III"

"Sky and Water I"

"Cycle"

"Metamorphosis III"

"Belvedere"

"Reptiles"

"Relativity"

"Fish" - 1942 woodcut

"Mobius Strip II (Red Ants)"

"Snakes"

"Fish" - 1941 woodcut

"Drawing Hands"

"Three Spheres I"

"Stars"

"Waterfall"

"Double Planetoid (Double Planet)"

"Dream (Mantis Religiosa)"

"Concentric Rinds (Concentric Space Filling / Regular Sphere Division)"

"Dragon"

This book is excellent. I used it in a college level art project and it helped a lot. The pictures are big and the detail is wonderful. Plus since it is written by Escher, the comments are great for understanding the contextualist side of each of his works. I would recommend this book to anyone.

This is a great "coffee table" picture book - full page prints of 29 of M.C. Escher's works. Not much text. The main drawback is that it is a paperback, so you can't use it too well as a "lap table" for other projects. And hey, the price is right, now! Just under 15 bucks, wow! We got our copy 15-20 years ago when the price was quite a bit higher! You can count on Amazon.Com to deliver it fast and cheap. Great book...