Flying Fish 1954

M.C. Escher, in this tessellated print, plays with red and white to form a repeating pattern of fish... or are they birds? I imagine Escher hunched over his drawing board, obsessively working to fit his fish shapes together, rotating and reflecting them like puzzle pieces. Each little guy has its own expression; those wide eyes are saying something. The way the red and white intertwine reminds me of the yin and yang symbol – two halves creating a whole. Maybe Escher was thinking about duality, about how things can be both fish and bird, both red and white, both solid and void. He's almost like an early Op artist, turning simple elements into something that plays tricks with our eyes, or even a precursor to digital art with all that repetition. He's continuing an ongoing conversation about perception and reality.