Cycle

1938

M.C. Escher

Associated Names
M.C. Escher

Artist, Dutch, 1898 - 1972

At the very top of the print is a distant landscape with rivers and hills. In front of them is a large building with multiple floors and arched openings. People wearing pointed hats walk down the stairs in the building. These people are all in the same pose, with their arms bent and upraised and one foot bent backwards. Towards the middle of the print, the walls and sides of the building begin turning into three dimensional cubes. These cubes begin to shift into different shapes in white, black, and gray. Farther down the print, it becomes clear that these repeating shapes are the shape of the people moving down the stairs, which are becoming more and more flattened and abstracted. The bottom of the print is only these repeating shapes, which fit together like puzzle pieces. The background of the print is blank, tan paper.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    lithograph

  • Credit Line

    Cornelius Van S. Roosevelt Collection

  • Dimensions

    image: 47.63 × 27.94 cm (18 3/4 × 11 in.)
    sheet: 56.52 × 35.56 cm (22 1/4 × 14 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1974.28.9

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Bool 1981, no. 305


Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1974

  • M.C. Escher Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., July 25 - December 30, 1974

1975

  • "By Design: Curious Deceptions in Art and Play", Xerox Square Exhibit Center, Rochester, NY, 1975.

1995

  • M.C. Escher: Landscape to Mindscape, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1995-1996.

Bibliography

1981

  • Bool, F.H. et al. M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work. Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1981; English-language edition, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1982.

Inscriptions

lower right,on stone: MCE / V'38; lower left, in pencil: MCEscher No. 10/14 II

Wikidata ID

Q65574211

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