Square Limit 1964

M.C. Escher made this print, Square Limit, and boy, did he use color cleverly! It's like he's playing a game with reds, grays, and whites, pushing them around to create this wild, expanding universe of shapes. Up close, you can see how he repeats these fish-like forms, shrinking them down as they get further away from the center. The texture is so precise, you can almost feel the crispness of the printmaking. The colors are flat, almost chalky, which gives it a graphic punch. Look at how the red shapes lock together with the gray ones, creating a sense of movement. It’s like they are swimming away from the centre, towards some distant horizon. Escher was a bit of a mathematical trickster in art. He reminds me a little bit of Sol Lewitt and his modular sculptures or wall drawings. They both reveled in systems and repetition. In the end, it’s all about seeing the infinite possibilities in the simplest of forms, right?