Thirty-Sixth Post: The Alhambra, Geometry and M.C. Escher

It sounds a bit like a joke at an art convention: What do the Alhambra, Geometry and M.C. Escher have in common?  Plenty it turns out.  There's a direct line between the three beginning with the fact that Islamic mosaic makers, in the Middle Ages were using a complex form of Geometry in their installations.  And it was a form of Geometry that Western Mathematics didn't understand until centuries later.  This is all documented in the article "Tiles of Infinity" by Sebastian J. Prange in the September/October 2009 issue of Saudi Aramco World.

The mathematics of the tessellations used in these mosaics are clearly described in the article but the photos make the point just as forcefully for visually oriented folks.  (Saudi Aramco World is a beautiful and informative magazine about Islamic history, art and culture that is published six times a year.  You can read it on the web or subscribe by mail for free--a real bargain). 

The Mosaics described in Pranges's article are from central Asia but the Alhambra Palace in Andalusian Spain contains many similar mosaics. 
  

Southern Spain is rich in this type of mosaic as well as Moorish influenced architecture.  That region of Spain during the middle ages, with its culture of tolerance between Chrsitians, Jews and Muslims, is documented in the fascinating book "The Ornament of the World" by Maria Rosa Menocal.  Thanks to Pieter Schaafsma from the American Society of Landscape Architects group on Linkedin for bringing this book to our attention.

So we've touched on the Alhambra and Geometry, but where does M.C. Escher come in?  Of course he's famous for several kinds of graphic art.  The first is his fanciful, architectural influenced prints that create a surreal world of arches, columns, staircases and towers that trick the visual senses.

The second type of work focuses on tessellations.  And this is the work that was influenced by a visit that Escher and his wife made to the Alhambra in October 1922.  But instead of the geometric shapes he found there, his revolutionary contribution to art was to use recognizable, often humorous shapes in his tessellations.

This style was parodied in a cover commentary in the New Yorker Magazine on the recent, tragic Gulf oil spill.

In some of his most wonderful later work, Escher combined the surreal with tessellations.

 There's an excellent opportunity is see more of this work in a current exhibition at the Akron Art Museum titled "M.C. Escher: Impossible Realities".  It runs through May 29, 2011 and contains the complete range Escher's graphic work.  Looking at the prints in the exhibit, one is struck by his use of contrast and the depth of black that he attains.  It's really quite thrilling see the real work instead of reproductions, web images and posters.  The exhibit also contains several of the woodblocks that the prints were pulled from.  And for more on the pivotal part Geometry plays in his work, look closely at the tessellations contained in his sketchbooks: under the pen and ink and watercolor you can see the lightly penciled tessellated grids of hexagons, diamonds or triangles that underlie each design.


George Woideck


George Woideck is an artist-in-residence  in the schools that specializes in clay, tile, mosaic and professional development.  See his work at tileandclayart.com.  Contact him at 216 225 0368.  Email him at gwoideck@tileandclayart.com.