Views of the Citadel Calvi (Corsica) 1933

M.C. Escher made this print of Corsica sometime in the first half of the twentieth century, using monochrome ink on paper. The whole piece vibrates with meticulous mark-making, a kind of building-up that reminds me of my own painting process. The sheer density of marks here is remarkable. Escher uses tiny dots and lines to create texture and shadow, giving the buildings a kind of palpable weight. Look at the way he renders the stone walls of the citadel, or the surface of the sea. Each mark feels deliberate, almost obsessive, yet somehow the overall effect is so much more than just the sum of its parts. There’s a kind of poetry in that obsessive quality. Escher's exploration of perspective reminds me a bit of Piranesi, but Escher brings an almost scientific precision to his craft. Both artists embraced ambiguity in their work. Neither offered a single, fixed meaning, and maybe that’s where the real power of art lies.