Caltavuturo in The Madonie Mountains, Sicily 1933

M.C. Escher made this print, Caltavuturo in The Madonie Mountains, Sicily, using, I imagine, a piece of wood and a sharp blade. Look at the marks he makes to describe the mountains. The way he suggests their forms through a dance of black and white. It's a real high-wire act to create such depth with such basic means. I can imagine Escher, squinting at the landscape, trying to simplify it into lines. I think of Cezanne and his mountain, how he must have stared, translating the world into planes. Here, Escher seems intent on mapping out the landscape, its textures, and the way light falls across it. Think of the history of printmaking and how artists have always been in conversation with the world around them, etching and carving their experiences into plates and blocks. Each mark a testament to seeing.