Image Essay #12

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who was most well-known for his seemingly impossible mind-boggling constructions. Although Escher also studied carpentry and architecture, he excelled greatly in the making of woodcuts and possessed profound skills in drawing. Escher married Jetta Umiker and lived with his wife and three sons in Rome, Italy for several years (he felt inspired by the landscape of Italy) until the unbearable political environment under the rule of Mussolini convinced them to move, first to Belgium for a few years, and then back to his birthplace, the Netherlands. In his old age, Escher moved into a retirement home for artists known as the Rosa-Spier House, where he was able to have his own art studio and continue his work until his death at age 73.

The image shown above, titled “Day and Night,” was created in 1938 and is one of Escher’s most well-known woodcuts. This particular work is an above average example of the artistic technique of figure-ground reversal. The term “figure-ground reversal” refers to a shift between different grounds or elements of a piece from dark to light, often confusing the viewer as to what constitutes the positive space and what makes up the negative space. In other words, in a figure-ground reversal, the positive and negative spaces “switch roles.” In Escher’s piece “Day and Night,” this technique is very effectively demonstrated through the image of the black birds against a white sky shifting into white birds against a black sky.