Palm Tree 1923

This is M.C. Escher’s Palm Tree, rendered in black and white. Escher’s mark-making here is about the meticulous hatching of line, a painstaking process of controlled gradations between light and dark. Look how the textures shift and change. The dark, stippled earth rises to meet the trunk, which is carefully built from layered, overlapping shapes. Above, the canopy explodes in radial patterns that almost vibrate. Notice the way the leaves overlap and intersect, creating complex visual rhythms. This piece reminds me a bit of Dürer, another artist obsessed with detail and precision. But where Dürer sought to capture the natural world with exactitude, Escher seems more interested in the playful possibilities of perception, and how simple marks can create complex and intriguing illusions. It's a reminder that art doesn't always have to be about answers, it can also be about asking interesting questions.