| It was sometime between
1924
and 1926 that Escher again attempted
plane-filling designs, this time with a single animal figure. In a lengthy
article, "M. C. Escheren
zijn experimenten" ("M. C. Escher
and His Experiments"), published in De vrije bladen (The Free Press)
in 1940, the art critic's Gravesande gave the following account:
He left this hobby
alone for a few years, but returned to it in 1925 or 1926.
At that time he tried one single closed contour, in the shape of a lion-like
animal repeating itself on the picture plane. The animal motif can be viewed
from two directions by turning it 180 degree around a vertical axis and
it fills the plane without leaving any intervening space. This was the
first effort to systematize,
though
Escher
recalled later on that he really did not yet understand what he was doing.
He printed this motif-as
well as the heads [Eight Heads]-several times on cloth, and exhibited it
among other places in Rome in 1926 and in Amsterdam, but
it was not very successful. Somewhat discouraged, he dropped this approach,
all the more so because such a simple lion-motif had cost him a great deal
of trouble and time.
Escher briefly mentions this disappointing
attempt in his own article in De Delver the following year:
"About
1924,
for the first time I printed on cloth a single animal motif cut out of
wood which repeats itself according to a certain system, thereby adhering
to the principle that no blank spaces may occur. I needed at least three
colors; with each in turn I rolled my stamping block in order to contrast
one motif with its adjoining congruent repetitions. I exhibited this cloth
together with my other work, but I did not have any success with it."
Escher
made
at least two versions of two different animal prints on fabric; they seem
to have been intended as furniture scarves, fringed or bound on the edges.
The first design, shown here printed with silver and gilt ink on black
satin, was also printed in another version on red satin. Its docile animal
motifs resembling dogs were called "lions" by
Escher.
The second design, whose motifs more nearly resemble lions, is on a very
long scarf of ivory silk of which just a portion is shown; a second print
was made on a rectangle of turquoise satin.
Although the published articles do not
mention it, it is likely that Escher
also produced a third fabric print during this time, a large wall hanging
of bats. It is printed on black satin in exactly the same manner
as the other two fabric prints, but the color scheme is more elaborate.
PS. Sketches 1-
7, by Escher and his wife Jetta, are of Moorish Islamic designs in
majolica tile, stucco, and brickwork at the Alhambra (Granada)
and La Mezquita (Cordoba), May-June 1936. Pencil, colored pencil, watercolor,
ink.
|
