M. C. Escher

One of the world’s leading graphic artists, M.C. Escher made prints featuring mind-bending optical illusions that are among the most recognizable images in modern art. His work was a forerunner to Op art and has been influential in pop culture, inspiring the cover art for The Who’s 1969 album Tommy and the set of the 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth. Escher’s illogical architectural spaces and visual puzzles —staircases seen from conflicting vantage points, hands drawing each other, a flock of flying birds transformed into a school of fish —are informed by mathematical principles and by Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, the patterned tiles of the Alhambra. They present perspectival and perceptual conundrums that bewilder and delight viewers. His original lithographs, woodcuts, and drawings have been reproduced on t-shirts, mugs, and posters, contributing to his popular appeal.