MC Escher’s world, part 2
This is Fiumara. Throughout the 1930s Escher continued exploring Italy just as he had begun with his adventurous companions years earlier, seeking out the most remote regions of the south on foot and by mule. In Calabria’s endless vistas and clattering towns piled up in the dust of centuries, he found some sort of paradise. Shown below is “Fiumara, Calabria” from 1930.
Escher in San Marco Leone. In 1927 he made his first lithograph. His first wood engraving, which permitted finer lines thanks to harder wood used, would come four years later. He enjoyed early success in both shows and sales, but throughout his life there were periodic slumps in public interest.
In 1932 the director of the Dutch Historical Institute in Rome ended one such dry spell by suggesting ideas for new works that were published as a book titled “Emblemata”, and the following year Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum bought 26 prints.
In 1934 Escher’s “Nonza, Corsica”, shown here, won third prize in the Exhibition of Contemporary Prints at the Art Institute of Chicago, which purchased the print – his first US sale.
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