How M.C. Escher’s ‘impossible’ constructions paved the way for the next generation of algorithmic artists 

The works of M.C. Escher — his endless staircases, tessellating birds, and self-drawing hands — are some of the most recognisable and widely reproduced images in art. Guided by mathematical precision and technical mastery, the Dutch artist’s ‘impossible’ constructions from the mid 20th century have profoundly shaped our culture, from fine art to science fiction, rock album covers, video game design and more.

The most significant offering of works on paper by the artist in decades will come to Christie’s this summer in M.C. Escher: The Art of Infinity, Featuring Prints and Drawings Sold to Benefit the Robert Owen Lehman Foundation, an online sale from 8-22 July. In anticipation of the auction, which coincides with this year’s Art + Tech Summit (16-17 July), Lindsay Griffith, Christie’s Head of Prints & Multiples, New York, spoke with Nicole Sales Giles, Director of Digital Art, about Escher’s perception-defying images and their lasting impact, which can be seen in the works of today’s foremost digital artists.

Visualising math, science and technology

Lindsay Griffith: ‘Escher occupies a very different space than most of the artists we handle in the Prints & Multiples department. His work is so widely known and beloved by such a wide range of people both within and outside the art world. Many first encounter Escher through a poster or other popular imagery. Early computer animation, video game design, Christopher Nolan films — all of these take inspiration from the patterns and designs Escher made in the 1950s and 1960s. That’s why I felt it was so important to have this conversation with you, Nicole, to talk about Escher’s legacy and the artists working today who are expanding on the ideas he pioneered.

‘Escher’s work visualises mathematical concepts. He thought quite specifically about algorithms as a visual language, which is prescient when you think about what digital artists are doing today.’

Nicole Sales Giles: ‘Yes, generative artists are particularly relevant here. Tyler Hobbs comes to mind as an artist working with algorithms to create images, as does Matt DesLauriers. Each of Hobbs’ Fidenza works, a few of which have sold at Christie’s, is created with the artist’s own algorithm that uses the randomness of the blockchain to produce a unique output.’

LG: ‘Escher was self-taught in math, and yet he influenced the work of mathematicians and scientists including Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking. He had an ongoing correspondence with the Oxford mathematician Penrose, based on their shared interest in tessellations. In the 1950s, Penrose was inspired by Escher’s optical illusions to create his own ‘impossible’ object, the Penrose stairs, from which Escher then made his iconic lithograph Ascending and Descending (1960).’

NSG: ‘In a similar vein, while some digital artists write their own code, many work with programmers. There’s this rich collaboration between art and tech.’

Technical mastery

LG: ‘Craft and technical precision were very important to Escher, who was a very talented printmaker and made these prints almost entirely on his own. His prints are these highly finished, fully realised images that were quite technically difficult to achieve using woodblock or lithography. This sale includes an unprecedented number of drawings and preparatory sketches alongside the prints, so you really get a sense of his process. You see him plotting things out and working through problems. In places you can see mathematical equations in the margins.

‘Printmaking is the oldest artmaking technique that uses a machine to make the mark.’

NSG: ‘Even as Escher’s process was very analogue and he used his hands, he was using machines to make art. In the field of digital art, artists have expanded on how they use technology, creating their own systems to generate images using computers and even robots. Harold Cohen is widely seen as the forefather of generative art. In the 1970s he developed a computer coding system he called AARON that would translate his drawings into plotter drawings, using a machine to make the art that he was encoding. Now there are artists collaborating with robots to co-create artworks like Sougwen Chung.’

Challenging our perception of reality

LG: ‘Patterns and pattern recognition in Escher’s work is an important link to AI artists. You can see this in Sketch for Ant Mobius Strip, where the insect shape is repeated in an infinite loop. Escher’s early work,  especially in his early years in Italy, is rooted in traditional ideas of how to express three-dimensionality in a landscape. Then you watch it evolve and break apart, as he deconstructs perspective and creates imaginary worlds. There have even been studies using impossible objects like Escher’s to test the ability of artificial intelligence to detect optical illusions and what’s “real”.’

NSG: ‘That’s fascinating. Much like Escher did, today’s AI artists make their audience wonder, What am I looking at? Is this real? One of my favourite artists doing this is the duo Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst. You know how you don’t have control over the images that come up when you Google yourself? These artists trained an AI model on images of Holly in wigs and costumes that exaggerate her features. They then uploaded the images generated by the model to the Internet, retaking ownership of her online image.’

LG: ‘One of the things people love about Escher’s work is this sense of being in a liminal space or a universe other than our own, which remain as pertinent as ever for artists working today.’