Knowing MC Escher

M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist. He was the first person to introduce a mathematical structure on tilings and tessellations. Today we'll explore some of its tessellations, paintings and woodcuts and we'll know a little better why his work represented a new insight on the way artists look at geometry.

Here below you have some links which will help you knowing the figure of M.C. Escher:

• Escher's tessellations
• Official MC Escher homepage

Activities

After reading those links and watching the videos, start designing a presentation. It should talk about the following points:

1. Who was M.C. Escher? Write a small biography in 4 or 5 lines.
2. After visiting a certain place, Escher became fascinated by the regular division of the plane (tessellations). Which was this place? How this affected his own work?
3. Why do you think that there are mathematics in tessellations?
4. Which things do fascinated MC Escher and why?
5. What are 'Escher's Illusions'? Are you able to talk about them?
6. List and comment some of the artist's most famous works.