Provenance

Dr. and Mrs. Julius S. Piver

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At first glance, this vertical woodblock print shows six arched openings piercing walls, each of which frames a bird or horn with a view onto an outer space environment beyond. The walls and columns are light brown and defined with grids in black or white. The logic indicating upright and upside down is confused, and the views out the openings shift to create disorienting optical effects. Neighboring arches pierce the walls to our left and ahead of us. A horn hangs from the left arch and what appeared to be a bird more closely resembles a bird with a person or a sphinx’s face. The view out these two windows shows a cratered landscape with planets and a comet across the dark sky. Below that, two more arches are cut into the wall that seems to be at the bottom of this space and the lower half of the right-hand wall. But we look up at the bird in front of us and the horn hanging from the right, so the tops of these arches point toward the first pair, which are parallel to us. The view out these windows is onto swirling galaxies, stars, and planets in a black sky. The third pair of arches is on the top of the image, but we look down onto this pair, including the bird’s head and the opening of the horn. The view out these windows is down onto craters that intersect like rings from stones tossed into a still lake. The artist signed the work with his blocky monogram in the lower left corner, as if on the face of that wall there as it zooms away from us: “I-’47 MCE.” The artist also signed the lower left margin, “MC Escher” with graphite and inscribed “eigen druk” under the lower right corner.
M.C. Escher, Other World (Another World), 1947, wood engraving and woodcut in black, light brown and green, printed from three blocks, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Julius S. Piver, 1984.31.1

Other World (Another World)

M.C. Escher · 1947 · wood engraving and woodcut in black, light brown and green, printed from three blocks ·  Accession ID  1984.31.1

M.C. Escher, Contrast (Order and Chaos), 1950, lithograph, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Julius S. Piver, 1984.31.2

Contrast (Order and Chaos)

M.C. Escher · 1950 · lithograph ·  Accession ID  1984.31.2

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Squaring the Circle

Richard Anuszkiewicz · 1963 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2015.19.99