Square Limit 1964

M.C. Escher pulled this print, Square Limit, using multiple blocks to lay down repeating patterns of stylized birds in red, white and grey. I’m trying to imagine what it might have been like for Escher, bending space, getting it to tile like this! The repetition here reminds me of the all-over of some abstract paintings. The methodical, mathematical approach almost meets the intuitive, creative approach. And then the birds take flight into infinity... Do you think he was thinking about the limitations of human perception? Or the infinite possibilities contained within a finite space? What a trickster! His work really opens up a portal to a world of endless possibility and, as painters, we're all in conversation with that.