Convex and Concave 1955

M.C. Escher created this dizzying lithograph, Convex and Concave, using black ink on white paper, and the limited palette focuses your attention on the shifting perspectives, and impossible architecture. Look at how he builds up the tone with all those tiny, careful lines. It’s painstaking, but so effective in creating depth and shadow. There’s a real sense of texture, of stone and fabric, even though it’s all just ink on a flat surface. Escher wants you to think about how you see, how your mind tries to make sense of things, even when they don’t quite add up. Take the staircase on the right, for instance. Is it going up or down? Your eye keeps flipping back and forth, trying to resolve the ambiguity. And that’s the point, right? That fixed meanings are less interesting than things that embrace ambiguity. Escher’s playfulness reminds me of Magritte, another artist who loved to mess with our perceptions. They both invite us to question what we think we know, and to find joy in the unexpected.