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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of Five

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Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's

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Speaker 1: Jerry over there, and this is Stuff You Should Know.

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Speaker 1: The Arts C edition is Jerry broom Tone. Roland. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think that's make believe stuff. Room tone. Yeah. She

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Speaker 1: might as well be like, let me capture a few

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Speaker 1: fairies in this, Mason Jark. First, I think it's the

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Speaker 1: same thing we made does in the final edit. I

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Speaker 1: don't know what it is about to explain to everyone.

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Speaker 1: Room tone is you do this on film sets and

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Speaker 1: in studios where you just make everyone sit completely silently

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Speaker 1: while you capture the sound of the room. So I

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Speaker 1: guess you can. What do you do with that? Jerry

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Speaker 1: layer it in in case you needed or something. Did

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Speaker 1: you hear that? Everyone? She said, she cleans up the

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Speaker 1: background to everybody listening, it sounded like there's something about it, though.

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Speaker 1: It's like being in church and getting the giggles, like

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Speaker 1: it's really hard, especially on the film, so when there's

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Speaker 1: like fifty people standing around being completely silent and farting,

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Speaker 1: I suspect it's strictly a power trip. You think the

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Speaker 1: person calling for a room tone, that's what I think.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna start doing that my house when things get

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Speaker 1: out of hand. Room tone. Don't make me bust out

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Speaker 1: the room tone on you. Well, since we're no, I

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Speaker 1: was gonna stay. Since we're talking about room tone, obviously,

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Speaker 1: the topic today is mc escher, who was well known

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Speaker 1: for going berserk anytime someone asked him to be quiet

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Speaker 1: for room tone. You had trash chairs, grab reptiles straight

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Speaker 1: out of the two dimensions and throw them into the

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Speaker 1: third dimension to steal all sorts of weird stuff. That's funny.

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Speaker 1: Did you think so that was a joke just for you? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so he everyone knows mc esure. If you've ever been

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Speaker 1: to college or taking drugs or sold drugs to somebody

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Speaker 1: in college, then you've probably seen hands drawing hands or uh,

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's not what the name of that one was,

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Speaker 1: but it's called drawing hands, is it? Or the Some

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Speaker 1: of his more famous ones are the these impossible rooms,

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Speaker 1: like stairs that lead to sideway stairs but you've gotta

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Speaker 1: wrap your head around it in a certain way to

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Speaker 1: even make sense of it, all right, or stairs that

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Speaker 1: lead into other stairs that lead back into the other stairs.

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Speaker 1: It is constant or I'm a big fan of that

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Speaker 1: one self portrait he did in the the Sphere. Yeah there,

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Speaker 1: the mirror Sphere. Mirror Sphere. Yeah, it's cool, it is

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Speaker 1: very cool. I'm not crazy about the face, even though

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Speaker 1: I'm sure he did it exactly precise, but the hand,

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Speaker 1: if you look at the hand, it's really realistic. It's

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Speaker 1: very pretty. Yeah, I mean, I'd like this stuff. This

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Speaker 1: is not my style, as in anything I would put

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Speaker 1: on my walls these days, but I still think he's

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Speaker 1: one of the like coolest, more innovative artists out there.

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Speaker 1: And there's a great factoid that I hope will hold

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Speaker 1: till the end, which are not the end, but kind

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Speaker 1: of where it falls in our So what is what

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Speaker 1: is factory mean against? I mean, you've killed ten percent

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Speaker 1: of all the facts and this is just one of

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Speaker 1: the percent remaining. That's right, Okay, gotcha. So um. One

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Speaker 1: of the things you chalk about m c es sure

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Speaker 1: that I found was that if you were impressed by

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Speaker 1: his work, prepared to get exponentially more impressive. We talked

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Speaker 1: about how he made those works too. That's the fact

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Speaker 1: of the show. For me. Okay, that's the fact. Got

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Speaker 1: hold onto that. Sure, Sure, I was just teasing it

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Speaker 1: a little bit. I didn't know that's what you're talking about,

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Speaker 1: although I should have guessed. So this is us talking

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Speaker 1: about an artist, which means that we should probably talk

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Speaker 1: about the artist being born. Um. And in the case

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Speaker 1: of mc Escher, whose name, by the way, was more

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Speaker 1: it's uh Cornelis. I want to say Cornelius, but there's

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Speaker 1: no you in there. Sure I nailed the last name,

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Speaker 1: but I'm spoke on name. Oh you didn't say nailed

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Speaker 1: the last name. This is the point where the people say,

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Speaker 1: get to the point already, Well we are at that point.

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Speaker 1: That's m C. And then Escher born June not nineteen nine.

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Speaker 1: As as the Grabster put it was like mans he

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Speaker 1: was born in leeu Warden, Netherlands, grew up in arn Him,

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Speaker 1: which is about sixty miles southeast of A. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mapped all this stuff out kind of that general area.

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Speaker 1: You went on a little Google tour. Uh. And he

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Speaker 1: signed even from early on as m CE. He signed

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Speaker 1: his paintings, although people called him mock m a UK

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Speaker 1: friends and family right, which didn't mean anything, ed points out,

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Speaker 1: but it's just like, you know, an affectionate term for Morrit's. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: is it Maurits probably Marites, Marit's cornellis Escher. But he

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Speaker 1: could also go the way of Morris. So is it

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Speaker 1: Morrit's more? I don't know. I wish, I wish I knew. Well,

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Speaker 1: what we do know is that, uh, in this we

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Speaker 1: should put a pin in because it's sort of plays

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Speaker 1: a big part in how he pursued his art. But

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Speaker 1: his dad had some money. He was a rich kid. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: for sure, which really helps, as we'll see as he's

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Speaker 1: trapesing around Europe on dad's time, slowly getting better at

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Speaker 1: art slowly. Yeah, that's a good point because he was

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Speaker 1: not great in school. He did love drawing class, but

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Speaker 1: apparently wasn't you know, he didn't have his second grade

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Speaker 1: teachers falling over themselves about what a talented artist he was. No,

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Speaker 1: and apparently he also didn't consider himself much of an artist,

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Speaker 1: although he engaged in art like he he did produce

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Speaker 1: art from a very young age. He was terrible in

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Speaker 1: school except that math and a drawing. Apparently, when he

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Speaker 1: was in grade school primary school he failed his finals,

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Speaker 1: all of them except for math and I read that

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Speaker 1: his father noted in his journal with some affection that

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Speaker 1: his son consoled himself by producing a Lena type of

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Speaker 1: a sunflower. That's how he made himself feel better after

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Speaker 1: after failing out of school. Well, and he he was

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Speaker 1: somewhat adept at math early on, but um, it's interesting

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Speaker 1: his his work is highly mathematical as far as art goes.

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Speaker 1: But later on in life, when he was confronted with

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Speaker 1: real mathematicians, he would sort of be like, no, not

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Speaker 1: me a man, Like I'm an artist. Well, I'm not

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Speaker 1: that kind of mathematician, so I said yes, But he

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Speaker 1: was most of his friends or mathematicians. For most of

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Speaker 1: his career, he was mostly appreciated by mathematicians and scientists.

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Speaker 1: Those are the people who really vibed on his work.

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Speaker 1: And that came later. Okay, that Camel remaining out real popular. Um,

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Speaker 1: but I saw that somebody made a movie called any

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Speaker 1: Into Infinity. It's a documentary, a full length documentary, I

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Speaker 1: believe the whole things on YouTube. Um, and it starts out.

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Speaker 1: The trailer starts out with Graham Nash saying, Hey, I

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Speaker 1: called up mc escher one day just to say, Mr Esher,

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Speaker 1: I think you're a really great artist, That's all I

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Speaker 1: wanted you to say. And he said, I don't consider

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Speaker 1: myself an artist. I consider myself a mathematician. Oh really, yes,

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Speaker 1: So I'm going with Graham Nash's interpretation. Spoke to him directly. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's crazy. He I mean, not to spoil anything,

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Speaker 1: but he died, uh in just seventy three, So you know,

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Speaker 1: if he would have lived to his like mid eighties,

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Speaker 1: which is somewhat reasonable, Um, he he would have been

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Speaker 1: like alive in the eighties, which just seems so weird.

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Speaker 1: It does seem kind of weird, you know. Yeah, because

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Speaker 1: he was he seems counter cultural for sure, even though

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Speaker 1: his his personality was not very counter cultural. Um, and

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Speaker 1: he didn't really have much love for hippies. In fact,

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Speaker 1: he later said that the hippies in San Francisco are

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Speaker 1: legally making copies of my work. Um. He didn't exactly follow,

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Speaker 1: you know, the normal usual beat throughout his lifetime. And

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Speaker 1: he was he was. He was a mathematician. He was

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Speaker 1: a bit of a square, but he was also a

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Speaker 1: very imaginative square. That's right. I was trying to make

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Speaker 1: a square joke, but it's not coming to me. Remember

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Speaker 1: that show Square Peg Square Peg Square Square pegs Sarah

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Speaker 1: Jessica Parker was she and that she was also and

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Speaker 1: girls just want to have fun, that's right. Yeah, And

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Speaker 1: I'm going to see her on Broadway next spring really yeah.

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Speaker 1: She and her husband are co starring in uh Plaza

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Speaker 1: Sweet and Neil Simon's Plaza Sweet. Very nice, very excited

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Speaker 1: about that. But I'm trying to align it with a

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Speaker 1: Bonnie Prince billy show, but that they're like a week apart,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, I can't just stay in there a

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Speaker 1: lot of time to kill, especially when there's hourly flights

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Speaker 1: between Atlanta New York. I know, I may just go

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Speaker 1: see Bonnie princeci Billion come home because he didn't play much.

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Speaker 1: But that's a story for another day, all right. So

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Speaker 1: he goes to school at Technical College of delf Um,

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Speaker 1: not for very long, and then he went to the

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Speaker 1: Harlem with two A's School of Architecture and Decorative Arts,

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Speaker 1: which is west of Amsterdam, not Harlem, New York. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think that's what the Harlem, New York is named after, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's where Bonnie Prince. He's at town Hall. Actually, how

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Speaker 1: is that right? Yeah? We played there, it's right, I

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Speaker 1: gotta stank on that joint. So his dad said, you know,

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Speaker 1: because you know, his dad had a lot of money

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Speaker 1: and made money. And even though you want to support

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Speaker 1: your kids, you want the you want to try and

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Speaker 1: edge them into something. If you're that kind of dude,

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Speaker 1: that that might be lucrative. So he said, hey, you

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Speaker 1: like to draw shapes, why don't you go study architecture.

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Speaker 1: And he did that for a little while, even though

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Speaker 1: he wasn't super into it. But while at school there

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Speaker 1: he had a very fortunate meeting by being mentored by

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Speaker 1: one Samuel just Serin Demisquita, who would be his mentor,

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Speaker 1: who noticed some of his early art. I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: how he saw it, but he took one look at

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Speaker 1: Esher's art and said, you don't need to go into architecture.

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Speaker 1: Come study under me and learn graphic design. And so

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Speaker 1: Escher did. He became a graphic designer, which he whether

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Speaker 1: he knew it or not, he had been his whole

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Speaker 1: life up to that point. All of his work is

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Speaker 1: very graphic in nature and design. Yeah, it really really is.

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Speaker 1: But I'm sure his dad in the early, you know,

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Speaker 1: nineteen twenties was probably like is that even a thing, right?

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Speaker 1: That sounds made up? But well, his dad also, I

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Speaker 1: don't know if you said or not, was a civil engineer,

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Speaker 1: so of course he would be like, you draw, just

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Speaker 1: go to architecture. That's what I know, civil engineering, and

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Speaker 1: there's architects in the world. Just go do the other

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Speaker 1: thing that I don't do. And he probably thought graphic

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Speaker 1: design just meant like you're gonna make signs, right or

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Speaker 1: post his stamps or Christmas paper, which he did later on.

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Speaker 1: That's right, So he made a little bit of dough.

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Speaker 1: So in the early nineteen twenties he started on his

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Speaker 1: uh sort of a rich kid journey, traveling around Europe

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Speaker 1: on his dad's time on a gap year that was

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Speaker 1: really really long, very long. But on one of these

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Speaker 1: trips he went to a couple of places that would

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Speaker 1: end up having a big influence on him. One in

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Speaker 1: Spain at the Alhambra, uh, and then just traveling through

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Speaker 1: southern Italy through the countryside. Yeah, he just fell in

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Speaker 1: love with Italy. Yeah, but in Spain this is this

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Speaker 1: is one that didn't bear fruit right away. But he

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Speaker 1: was really fascinated by these mosaics and tesselations which are

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Speaker 1: described as okay, they are repeating designs that interlock with

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Speaker 1: one another, leave no space between one another, and that

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Speaker 1: when you fit them together they fully cover a plane,

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Speaker 1: which is harder to do than you would think. Yeah, Like,

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Speaker 1: if you've ever seen the ess er fish um sort

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Speaker 1: of tessellation, the white fish and the black fish kind

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Speaker 1: of working in one another, Yeah, that's a perfect example.

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Speaker 1: And he would do this a lot later on. If

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Speaker 1: you've ever played Cuberta, that's those cubes or tessellations a

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Speaker 1: certain kind. But he got really into this, even though

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Speaker 1: it wasn't like right away that he started doing these things.

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Speaker 1: That sort of came a little bit later. But what

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Speaker 1: he did do was started drawing the Italian countryside because

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Speaker 1: he loved it. Loved it. I mean like he he

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Speaker 1: went to Italy, it was like this is my home,

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Speaker 1: and he was Quota at one point in time is

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Speaker 1: saying like he never wanted to become an Italian among Italians.

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Speaker 1: He liked being a stranger um, but he loved Italy,

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Speaker 1: which is an interesting thing to say. I'm not exactly

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Speaker 1: sure what it means. I think what he was saying

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Speaker 1: was he's he he likes being a visitor to Italy

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Speaker 1: rather than there's a certain amount of responsibility that comes

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Speaker 1: with being one of us, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 1: Whereas if you can be like that guy over there,

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Speaker 1: who will accept him, We're not going to throw rocks

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Speaker 1: him every time we see him or anything like that,

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Speaker 1: and we'll take his money and you know, maybe even

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Speaker 1: say hi to him or whatever. We'll leave him alone.

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Speaker 1: We won't include him in our expectations of what it

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Speaker 1: means to be a local. Got you, That's what I

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Speaker 1: think he was after Clearly I can identify with that. Well,

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Speaker 1: that kind of came through in his work too, because

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Speaker 1: if you'll notice, even in these um before he started

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Speaker 1: doing the like trippy three dimensional hands drawing hands and stuff,

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Speaker 1: when he was doing countrysides, he didn't do a lot

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Speaker 1: of people, didn't do a lot of faces. People were

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Speaker 1: very much in the background and nondescript. But even when

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Speaker 1: you look at these, when you say Italian still lives

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Speaker 1: of countrysides, what came to mind for me were these beautiful, lush,

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Speaker 1: colorful recreations of a countryside. Nope, when you look at these,

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Speaker 1: they still look very much like in the m. C. E.

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Speaker 1: S Ra style that we all know. Yeah, like very clearly.

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Speaker 1: A lot of them too. They're cool. Yeah, they're beautiful.

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Speaker 1: They're black and white and then shades of ray, which

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Speaker 1: is all just shading, right, Um, But they are beautiful

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Speaker 1: in their way and lovely even. I like this stuff

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Speaker 1: more than the trippy stuff. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: this is something I would put on my wall. You're

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Speaker 1: an art snob, You're like, oh, I only like ER's

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Speaker 1: early Italian landscapes. Oh man, take that trip stuff for

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Speaker 1: Graham Nash. I'm so ashamed. No, I think it's great,

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Speaker 1: Chuck you you have, but they are gorgeous. Um. And

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Speaker 1: then he met his wife. His name was Jetta. Jetta,

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Speaker 1: that's right, very nice, thank you. She was swift, learned

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Speaker 1: from the best. They met her in Italy, but she

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Speaker 1: was Swiss, and she went home and they sent a

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Speaker 1: bunch of love letters. It's a very sweet story. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure mccer movie would be pretty cool. Somebody wrote a

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Speaker 1: script or they wrote a dissertation about the process of

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Speaker 1: writing a script about m c escher. It's from University

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Speaker 1: of Texas, I wrote in two thousand and seventeen. I

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Speaker 1: can't remember the name of it, but just look up. Oh,

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Speaker 1: just some random stuff comes up if you look up

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Speaker 1: mosquito bootprint, which will come up later, but if you

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Speaker 1: search that on Google, it brings up. Have you ever

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Speaker 1: done that? Have you ever been like, I'm bored? I

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Speaker 1: want to see what weird stuff I can unlock from Google?

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Speaker 1: And it takes a certain amount of skill because Google

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Speaker 1: wants to give you exactly what you're looking for. It

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Speaker 1: doesn't want to give you just randomness, so you have

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Speaker 1: to trick it. So maybe you'll you'll type in a

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Speaker 1: weird word or the first three letters of a word

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Speaker 1: or something like that, and it's weird stuff will start

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Speaker 1: to come. Well, if you type in mosquito bootprint, probably

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Speaker 1: only like the first three of them pertain to m

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Speaker 1: C s or and the rest are just a random

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Speaker 1: assortment of of links. I remember, early in the days

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Speaker 1: of Google, Uh, we had a mutual friend who they

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Speaker 1: did this what I thought was a very dumb game

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Speaker 1: where they would try and find two words together that

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Speaker 1: they would try and produce the fewest amount of Google results.

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Speaker 1: And whoever could put two words together that found the

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Speaker 1: fewest one. Yeah, And I don't know if you remember

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Speaker 1: them doing that, but I don't know. I don't remember

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Speaker 1: you talking about lots of waste of time. But I

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Speaker 1: remember that some guy did, like a Ted talk about that. Really. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: well maybe I'm the dummy. No, no, no it was.

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Speaker 1: I mean look at me. I like mcsher's early work.

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Speaker 1: I think that's awesome. I mean, what taste. So he

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Speaker 1: meets and gets married. Uh, she returns to Italy and

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Speaker 1: they married. Do you mean Jed That's right. She would

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Speaker 1: become Jedda Esher and they had a son named Georgio

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Speaker 1: later had sons Arthur and Yan, and Uh, they were

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Speaker 1: still just sort of traveling and his dad was even

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Speaker 1: though he was married, his dad was still footing the bill.

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Speaker 1: Esher's dad mc escher's father. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, which

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Speaker 1: I was thinking about it. I was like, gosh, you know,

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Speaker 1: not get a benefactor. Wake up every day and look

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Speaker 1: at yourself in the mirror. But if you're if youre

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Speaker 1: in the mirror sphere, right, how do you and then

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Speaker 1: how do you draw it? So amazingly? Um? The father

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Speaker 1: Estra's father though, and like, what better way to spend

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Speaker 1: your money than to just be like, this is what

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Speaker 1: you want to do with your life, son? You want

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Speaker 1: to pursue art and live in beautiful Italy than like here,

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Speaker 1: this is what I want for you, and that's like

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Speaker 1: that's the pinnacle of what a parent can do for

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Speaker 1: their child in a lot of ways. No, totally, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's not like, hey, why don't you go, you know,

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Speaker 1: take up Heroin and here's a bunch of money for

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Speaker 1: you to like lay around in a bitha. True I

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Speaker 1: want to know more. I'm not I hope I'm not

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Speaker 1: coming across the cynical, but I wonder if some of

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Speaker 1: this was like he'll come around if I you know,

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Speaker 1: to architecture or whatever. You kept waiting for the part

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Speaker 1: where his father cuts him off. I was his father

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Speaker 1: apparently wouldn't like that. All right. I know, I'm not

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Speaker 1: trying to talk you into my way of thinking. I'm

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Speaker 1: not saying like I had. I started out thinking the

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Speaker 1: same way you did. And then something happened. I was like,

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Speaker 1: it was actually really neat of his day. It was

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Speaker 1: it all seems above board. Yeah. So World War Two

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Speaker 1: has a profound effect on Esher and his work. He

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Speaker 1: learned that they were making his nine year old son, Georgio,

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Speaker 1: marching fascist youth parades, and he said, pack your bags,

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Speaker 1: were going to Switzerland. That is the appropriate response to

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Speaker 1: that news. Yeah, we're getting out of here, marching for

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Speaker 1: moose Lein. Have you seen Jojo Rabbit yet? No? Is

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Speaker 1: it good? Is it as good as it looks? It's great.

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Speaker 1: I can't everything about it. Do I need to see

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Speaker 1: in theater. It doesn't seem like one I have to

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Speaker 1: see any I mean, you know, it's always fun to

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Speaker 1: laugh with a big group of people, although by now

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Speaker 1: it's probably thinned out. Uh. And I was laughing a

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Speaker 1: lot and people weren't laughing. I like that kind of

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Speaker 1: one of those deals. I mean, it's a movie about

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Speaker 1: a kid having Hitler as an imaginary friend. So don't

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Speaker 1: tell me that I didn't know. I know, I had

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Speaker 1: no idea that was on the poster. I know, but

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Speaker 1: I didn't know he was an imaginary friend. Oh, get

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Speaker 1: out of my brain. Sorry, that really doesn't spoil anything. Okay,

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Speaker 1: don't tell me anything some big reveal. Um. So they

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Speaker 1: go to Switzerland. All apologies as long as it's not

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Speaker 1: a big spoiler. No, no, no no, no, of course not. Um.

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Speaker 1: They go to Switzerland and he even though he did

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Speaker 1: not like the mountains, he didn't like the snow, did

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Speaker 1: not like cold, weather. So they moved to Belgium after

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Speaker 1: a couple of years, which is just beautiful compared to Switzerland.

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Speaker 1: Belgium is nice. Uh. In the nineteen in May of

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty though, the Nazis invaded Belgium, and so they

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Speaker 1: moved to the Netherlands in ninety one, where the Nazis

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Speaker 1: already were. Yeah, I guess they can't occupy it again.

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Speaker 1: Well in its home. Uh, And they've settled in Barn,

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Speaker 1: which is about twenty three miles southeast of Amsterdam. I

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Speaker 1: don't know if that's how you're supposed to say it

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Speaker 1: be a A A R. I like it's probably Barren. Oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'll bet you just nailed it. I think so. But

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Speaker 1: duchess very strange. But it's not strange, but just for

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Speaker 1: my English, dumb English years, supposedly English is the strangest

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Speaker 1: of all. Yeah, I'm sure it's just a hybrid mongrel

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Speaker 1: language that doesn't make any sense to anyone who's not

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Speaker 1: a native speaker of it. You know, what is an

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Speaker 1: interesting language is Welsh. Because I'm watching the Crown and uh,

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Speaker 1: when Prince Charles starts coming around Prince of Wales, there's

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Speaker 1: people speaking Welsh and I was very ignorant about even

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Speaker 1: knowing that what it sounds like, what it sounds like,

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Speaker 1: and that it was still spoken, and uh, it was

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Speaker 1: a very odd hybrid. It sounded like several different things.

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Speaker 1: It's all old Celtic stuff. Yeah, very unusual gallic Gallic, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think it's Gallic. That's Galic language group, one of

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Speaker 1: the two. Yeah. Everything I know about Welsh I learned

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Speaker 1: from super furry animals. Oh yeah, because that guy's Welsh Man.

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Speaker 1: I saw them blood Granddaddy off the stage one time.

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Speaker 1: Oh you saw him live? Oh I think he told me.

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Speaker 1: That melted my brain. So they're traveling around still, even

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Speaker 1: though they're settled in Barn, and they go back to

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Speaker 1: al Hambra in Spain, which I don't think we said

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Speaker 1: what that is. No, it's a it's a thirteenth century

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Speaker 1: Moorish castle from when the Moors conquered Spain's beautiful. It

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Speaker 1: is very beautiful, and they built it in the Moorish

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Speaker 1: style and then it was eventually like taken over by

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Speaker 1: the Christian like royalty that that explored the New World

386
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Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But this castle was done in

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Speaker 1: these tiles that are renowned for being some of the

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00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:44,320
Speaker 1: most beautiful geometric like Islamic patterns you've ever seen in

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Speaker 1: your life. And they got to Escher. He'd seen him before,

390
00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:50,000
Speaker 1: but it was I guess he was like, oh, that's

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00:21:50,080 --> 00:21:52,440
Speaker 1: kind of cool. But the second trip that he went

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Speaker 1: back with after they moved to from Switzerland, I think

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Speaker 1: to Belgium or maybe to Switzerland. UM, that's when he

394
00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:02,840
Speaker 1: was like, I am obsessed with these now, please tessellations

395
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:07,240
Speaker 1: started drawing him. Jetted it too, says that they worked together,

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Speaker 1: so I'm not I didn't know that she was an artist.

397
00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:15,560
Speaker 1: I didn't either, but they World War two comes back around?

398
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:18,159
Speaker 1: Will that comes back around? And never left, let's be honest.

399
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Speaker 1: But UH Spain would devolve into civil war, and so

400
00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:26,640
Speaker 1: this meant that he was kind of stuck in uh

401
00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:29,920
Speaker 1: outside of Amsterdam for a little while. Longer, he wasn't

402
00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,600
Speaker 1: doing as much traveling. No, he was in the Netherlands

403
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:39,560
Speaker 1: and um he rekindled his friendship with Mosquito, his old

404
00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:43,600
Speaker 1: mentor who had stayed in Netherlands this whole time, and

405
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:49,160
Speaker 1: Mosquito was Jewish and he was taken away by the Nazis.

406
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Speaker 1: Eventually he was killed at um Auschwitz. I believe with

407
00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:57,600
Speaker 1: his wife and their son was also killed in another

408
00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:02,959
Speaker 1: concentration camp by the Nazis. And this really got to Escher, like,

409
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:05,120
Speaker 1: this is one of his dear friends, and he had

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Speaker 1: um a work, a sketch of mosquitoes. When he went

411
00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:11,280
Speaker 1: to his house to visit Mosquito, he found the door

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00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:13,320
Speaker 1: was opened and they weren't there, and they'd clearly been

413
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:16,359
Speaker 1: taken by the Nazis. And one of the pieces of

414
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:19,320
Speaker 1: artwork that he gathered together to preserve was a sketch

415
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:21,960
Speaker 1: of mosquitoes that had a Nazi bootprint on it. And

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00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,639
Speaker 1: that's what you were referenced earlier with your Google search

417
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:27,320
Speaker 1: Mosquito bootprint. Was there a picture of it? No, I

418
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:29,440
Speaker 1: couldn't find anything aside from the fact that it was

419
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:31,400
Speaker 1: a sketch, not that it was a sketch of what

420
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:33,919
Speaker 1: or anything like that, just that there was a sketch

421
00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:37,040
Speaker 1: of mosquitoes that was that had a boot a bore bootprint,

422
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:40,200
Speaker 1: and that Escher hung onto This is his entire life.

423
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 1: It was very important to him, and he was not

424
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 1: um uh a very flowery like um like passionate man

425
00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:55,720
Speaker 1: or anything like that. I get the impression that he

426
00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:58,640
Speaker 1: and this is sure, I'm talking about that. He internalized

427
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. Uh, and I think that him

428
00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 1: holding onto that piece of art was probably a more

429
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:09,600
Speaker 1: significant than even it appears on the outside. Yeah. And

430
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:14,040
Speaker 1: uh supposedly Um hid some people from a Jewish family

431
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:18,080
Speaker 1: during the Nazi occupation years, and also during those same

432
00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,200
Speaker 1: years did not exhibit or release any prints. Wait a minute,

433
00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:23,000
Speaker 1: I think you just said hid some people from a

434
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:26,240
Speaker 1: Jewish family or did you say hid some members of

435
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,680
Speaker 1: a Jewish family. Well, people members of a Jewish family,

436
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,679
Speaker 1: but you said from I think yeah, I mean like

437
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: they were from a Jewish family and got you. He

438
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:39,119
Speaker 1: didn't hide them from right, right, don't tell the Jewish

439
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:41,439
Speaker 1: family that you're hiding over here. No, that would have

440
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 1: been weird. Uh. So maybe we should take a break now. Oh,

441
00:24:46,119 --> 00:25:12,280
Speaker 1: I think it's unraveled at the point the guys are right. Yeah, okay, Chuck.

442
00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 1: So World War Two kind of comes and goes around

443
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:18,639
Speaker 1: Escher despite his best efforts to escape it. Um And

444
00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 1: it definitely had a mark on him. But one of

445
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 1: the other things that that had a really big mark

446
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:27,399
Speaker 1: on him was having to move from Italy. It was

447
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:29,800
Speaker 1: like you said, like he was married, had a family,

448
00:25:30,160 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: his father was still supporting him, and every spring and

449
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 1: summer he would just tour the Italian countryside and visit

450
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:38,920
Speaker 1: small quaint towns and just be inspired to keep making

451
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:42,119
Speaker 1: these Italian landscapes. But it makes a really great point

452
00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:45,479
Speaker 1: here that his Italian landscapes are very handsome works of art,

453
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 1: very beautiful, favorite, technically proficient. There Chuck's favorite. But you

454
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,920
Speaker 1: would almost certainly have never seen them in your entire

455
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 1: life were it not for him moving from Italy, because

456
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 1: in doing so, he lost his source of inspiration ration

457
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: and it was forced to kind of turn inward because

458
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:06,120
Speaker 1: he hated what Switzerland looked like. He wasn't apparently very

459
00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,959
Speaker 1: inspired by his home country of the Netherlands. Um so

460
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:11,840
Speaker 1: he had to kind of turn inward into his own

461
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 1: imagination and start coming up with new subjects, and in

462
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:20,800
Speaker 1: doing that, the true essuer was was unlocked. Yeah, because

463
00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:23,600
Speaker 1: early in like a lot of artists early in their career,

464
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:27,760
Speaker 1: they they kind of free ranged through different styles, trying

465
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:30,160
Speaker 1: to find their own personal thing. He had a very

466
00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 1: very colorful clown period. It's very bizarre, doesn't fit with

467
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:38,160
Speaker 1: the rest of it, very John Wayne Gacy, right, but

468
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:42,120
Speaker 1: you can very clearly see if you look at Mosquito's work,

469
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:46,360
Speaker 1: that connection and the influence from him. Um, although Mosquito

470
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 1: did a lot of sort of graphic portraits and things

471
00:26:49,840 --> 00:26:52,520
Speaker 1: like that, whereas Escher didn't really worry too much about

472
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 1: humans and faces. Yeah yeah, um they were they were

473
00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: just kind of like almost afterthoughts. But early on he

474
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,520
Speaker 1: did start experimenting stuff that would later become sort of

475
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:07,159
Speaker 1: his hallmark. When he did do like a uh sketch

476
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 1: of a building, let's say, it would be from this

477
00:27:09,440 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 1: really like tall odd angle looking down on it, very

478
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 1: severe angles and like a horizon, or trees that sort

479
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:21,840
Speaker 1: of go on into infinity. Stuff like that that would

480
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,479
Speaker 1: become very much his style later on. And Ed very

481
00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:30,400
Speaker 1: astutely points out that there's something about his style that, um,

482
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 1: I don't know how dark of a person he was emotionally,

483
00:27:33,359 --> 00:27:36,840
Speaker 1: but there is something about the severity of these angles

484
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 1: and a lot of his work that was just sort

485
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:45,720
Speaker 1: of um uneasy feeling. It didn't look like just some beautiful,

486
00:27:46,359 --> 00:27:50,159
Speaker 1: colorful Italian countryside. There was something kind of strange and

487
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 1: unusual about it. Something about the contrast of black and

488
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,359
Speaker 1: white definitely does it too. And he was such a

489
00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:00,879
Speaker 1: master of shading that if something was stark and black

490
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,360
Speaker 1: and white, I mean, unless it was his earliest work

491
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 1: was because he wanted it to look that way and

492
00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:08,440
Speaker 1: to make it stark and kind of un settling like that.

493
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:11,320
Speaker 1: But yeah, there's like a certain amount of dread in

494
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:14,400
Speaker 1: a lot of his stuff. Yeah, and it's not something

495
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:17,520
Speaker 1: you can easily put your finger on, but it's definitely there. Yeah,

496
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:22,480
Speaker 1: Like did you see uh the mummified priests. Yeah, that

497
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:24,919
Speaker 1: was creepy and then one of the isn't it more

498
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:29,239
Speaker 1: creepy to actually do that in real life? Stand them

499
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,560
Speaker 1: up like that in these little alcoves? Oh yeah, absolutely,

500
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 1: just don't kill the messenger. And he would have sometimes

501
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:40,960
Speaker 1: skulls um featured in some of his work and stuff

502
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,560
Speaker 1: like that, like the one of the Eye believe called

503
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 1: I right in the middle of the people as a

504
00:28:45,880 --> 00:28:48,640
Speaker 1: skull staring back. So he had little touches like that

505
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 1: without going full like uh, you know, love craft Ian

506
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:57,200
Speaker 1: right or Goya or something like that. I don't even bosh,

507
00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:59,040
Speaker 1: I don't know who that is, Sure you do, I'm

508
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:04,440
Speaker 1: just kidding, Okay, I know those people, so uh, his

509
00:29:04,840 --> 00:29:06,480
Speaker 1: I guess this is where we get to the fact

510
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:10,600
Speaker 1: of the show for me, take it away, Chuck, because folks,

511
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,240
Speaker 1: if you've ever seen an M. C. Ser print and

512
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:16,080
Speaker 1: he thought, man, that guy could sure draw a print,

513
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 1: imagine cutting that out of wood in reverse, in reverse,

514
00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:23,720
Speaker 1: because that's what he did. A lot of his stuff

515
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:29,320
Speaker 1: were wood cuts. Even harder than that, Chuck, is the lithograph. Yeah,

516
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,800
Speaker 1: so a wood cut. If you've ever made used a stamp,

517
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:38,719
Speaker 1: or made a potato stamp, basically, well, that's what it is.

518
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 1: He's actually carving the stuff into wood as a negative

519
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:43,960
Speaker 1: image because then when you run ink over it and

520
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,360
Speaker 1: stamp it, you get the positive image. And it's just incredible.

521
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: I mean, it's hard enough to draw and sketch this stuff,

522
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 1: much less cut it out of wood. Right, So so

523
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: just take a step back and think about the ashers

524
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 1: that you've seen before. Imagine that they were they were

525
00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 1: originally carved out of would and now imagine that to

526
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 1: get even more detailing, because you can't adjust how much

527
00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:08,960
Speaker 1: ink is certain part of the wood block gets. It's

528
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:11,239
Speaker 1: all going to get an even layer of ink. So

529
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,160
Speaker 1: to shade something you have to do cross hatching lines,

530
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:18,440
Speaker 1: stipling something like that. But to get really detailed with shading.

531
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: You need multiple blocks of the same image in the

532
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 1: exact same size, with different parts accentuated, so that you

533
00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:30,160
Speaker 1: can layer over. You can take the same paper and

534
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 1: layer them on different blocks and line them up so

535
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:37,840
Speaker 1: that you have layers to this image. That was the

536
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,880
Speaker 1: level of the wood cuts this guy was doing. Yeah, Like,

537
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 1: that's sort of like a T shirt screen printing, like

538
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:48,320
Speaker 1: a four color shirt. You gotta layer, you gotta put

539
00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 1: it on exactly in the in the spot that it

540
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:53,800
Speaker 1: needs to go each time, drag that ink across, so

541
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 1: it's not you know, off by a centimeter because it

542
00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: would look bad. So the wood cuts, um, especially as

543
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:03,640
Speaker 1: earlier woodcuts. You can tell their wood cuts they look

544
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 1: like wood cuts. Some of them do not. There's some

545
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 1: of the Italian countryside. Um that's just are just yeah,

546
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: are just astounding. And when you stop and think about

547
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: the idea that they it's not a drawing, that their

548
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:22,080
Speaker 1: wood cuts, multiple blocked wood cuts, is pretty astounding. But

549
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 1: like I was saying to me, even even more difficult

550
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: is making the lithograph. Yeah. I think I talked about

551
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,840
Speaker 1: this on some other episode. Um, I know it talked

552
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: about batiguing, but I also talked to in industrial arts.

553
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:41,760
Speaker 1: We did offset lithography in that social experiment high school exactly.

554
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:46,520
Speaker 1: We did offset lithography, which um basically I mean that's

555
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:49,920
Speaker 1: the process today. I mean that's how they make newspapers, posters, books, maps,

556
00:31:50,320 --> 00:31:53,640
Speaker 1: kind of everything. This is with offset lithography. It was

557
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 1: in do you remember it was in the um Et

558
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 1: Sketch episode. That's what I art originally did, was lithography. Okay,

559
00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:06,200
Speaker 1: well this is this is pre like today, you use

560
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:09,160
Speaker 1: like aluminum or some other kind of metal sheet and

561
00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:16,040
Speaker 1: these emulsions and chemicals. Back then it was drawn into limestone,

562
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,720
Speaker 1: a flat slab of limestone with a grease pencil, and

563
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: then use a chemical treatment uh to uh on the

564
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 1: areas that basically water and inc don't mix. It's sort

565
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:29,680
Speaker 1: of all built on that principle. So the areas where

566
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:33,080
Speaker 1: you have written in Greece do not hold that inc

567
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:35,400
Speaker 1: or is it the other way around? No, I think

568
00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 1: they don't hold the Yeah. Again, what you're doing is

569
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 1: creating a negative image, just like the wood cut essentially,

570
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 1: so you've got this um attraction and repulsion interplay between ink,

571
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: water and grease, and when you put it all together

572
00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:59,120
Speaker 1: on limestone, it makes these extremely subtle gradients of shading

573
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:02,720
Speaker 1: that are kind of like a hallmark of some of

574
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 1: Escher's more um well known works. Yeah, the hands drawing hands, right, Yeah,

575
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:14,280
Speaker 1: that was a lithograph. He made that with limestone and grease,

576
00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:17,600
Speaker 1: pen and ink, and um did it in reverse too,

577
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 1: because just like with the woodblock, you have to create

578
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:24,120
Speaker 1: the negative of it because you want the positive image

579
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:26,320
Speaker 1: on the paper. You have a very special brain if

580
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 1: this is if you can work this stuff out as

581
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:32,560
Speaker 1: an artist. You know, it's uh, not saying that any

582
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,200
Speaker 1: kind of artist is any better or worse or smarter

583
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:38,760
Speaker 1: than the next, but your brain just has to be

584
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:41,600
Speaker 1: wired a little bit differently to thinking negatives like that,

585
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:44,400
Speaker 1: like a mathematician. Basically, yeah, your brain has to be

586
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:49,200
Speaker 1: set up that way. Yeah, absolutely, But lithography is difficult,

587
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:52,680
Speaker 1: very labor intensive. So later on he would hire a

588
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 1: lithographer to actually create his prints after he's sketched and

589
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: drawn the stuff out smart and he would destroy the limestone. Well,

590
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:02,560
Speaker 1: he wouldn't destroy it, he would scrape it clean so

591
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:05,440
Speaker 1: we could reuse it. So that's the reason. Like if

592
00:34:05,480 --> 00:34:09,520
Speaker 1: you want to buy an original mc Escher, good luck. Well,

593
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:11,920
Speaker 1: there's there's no such thing. There's original prints that he

594
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 1: made and apparently you're not gonna get your hands one

595
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:17,640
Speaker 1: of those limestones. No, but there are a couple of

596
00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:20,160
Speaker 1: those left over. But he said that he wanted him.

597
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:22,759
Speaker 1: I think canceled is what they call it in his will,

598
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 1: where they intentionally damage it. So that even if you

599
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 1: got ahold of one of these things and you were like,

600
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:32,080
Speaker 1: I'm gonna print me a brand new esure Um, there'd

601
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:35,680
Speaker 1: be like the like the the negative image of sniggle

602
00:34:35,760 --> 00:34:39,080
Speaker 1: Puss like comes through and like the hand drawing hands

603
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:43,360
Speaker 1: picture h And he did not do many original prints

604
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:46,480
Speaker 1: from those original woodcuts and lithographs either. I think he

605
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: only did ten of still life with spherical mirror. And

606
00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:54,680
Speaker 1: so anything obviously, anything you'd buy in a Spencer Gifts,

607
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:59,000
Speaker 1: it's going to be a print anyway. What they told

608
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 1: me it was, you mean bikini Lady on corvette. You

609
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 1: can probably get the original of that. It Spencer probably

610
00:35:06,160 --> 00:35:11,720
Speaker 1: cut the original negative um Bikini Lady Corvette man, remember

611
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:16,680
Speaker 1: that filled with Lamborghini. The these lithographs, he would also

612
00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:19,600
Speaker 1: layer those just like you did with the woodcuts, creating

613
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 1: multiple plates to layer on top of one another for

614
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: shading and toning and stuff like that. It's just amazing.

615
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:27,880
Speaker 1: I mean I did it to make a monkey's T shirt.

616
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:32,399
Speaker 1: I forgot. You used to screen print too, so did I? Yeah? Well,

617
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 1: actually the monkeys T shirt was screen printing. I think

618
00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 1: I can't remember what what I did for a lithograph.

619
00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:40,440
Speaker 1: I think something to make a notepad that said like

620
00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,560
Speaker 1: my name and something else. Oh that's right. So you

621
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 1: you screen printed in industrial arts? Yes? Okay, like you

622
00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:51,440
Speaker 1: were you ever employed gainfully as a screen No? Oh

623
00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:53,759
Speaker 1: did you do that? Yeah? No? I mean I would

624
00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:56,000
Speaker 1: have loved to it. I wasn't good enough. It's always

625
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,320
Speaker 1: not hard. Yeah, but I mean you would draw the

626
00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,879
Speaker 1: stuff for you? No? No, no, no, would like burn

627
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:04,600
Speaker 1: the screens and everything and drag the ink through. And

628
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:08,080
Speaker 1: he did for for a job, well like high school? No,

629
00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:10,400
Speaker 1: this is it college? What kind of dough do you

630
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:14,120
Speaker 1: make doing that? Jack? Yeah? But it's fun. It's cool work.

631
00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 1: You know, you just listen to beer and a few

632
00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:20,000
Speaker 1: bucks pretty much hang out with some cool dudes and

633
00:36:20,120 --> 00:36:23,160
Speaker 1: you know that's yeah. Yeah, I got you good early

634
00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:25,560
Speaker 1: college job, you know what I mean? I think it'd

635
00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:27,920
Speaker 1: be cool. And I mean there's a very cool T

636
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,000
Speaker 1: shirt local T shirt shop here that every time I

637
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:33,640
Speaker 1: go over there, because that's where our friend, uh, the patchmaker,

638
00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:37,080
Speaker 1: uh Katie Culp works, or at least she used to.

639
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:39,120
Speaker 1: I think she's got her own space now, but she

640
00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:42,839
Speaker 1: shared a space with T shirt dudes, and anytime I'm

641
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 1: in there, it's just a good vibe, you know what

642
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:47,279
Speaker 1: I mean. There are a lot worse places to spend

643
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:51,160
Speaker 1: your time than a T shirt shop, So uh oh.

644
00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:53,359
Speaker 1: Another thing we should point out is that he did

645
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:57,040
Speaker 1: do color occasionally, but color was a whole different You

646
00:36:57,040 --> 00:36:59,920
Speaker 1: had to do a separate stone for each color. So

647
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 1: that's why a lot of his stuff ended up in

648
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 1: black and white, aside from the fact that he liked

649
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:05,520
Speaker 1: it as well. Yeah, he seemed to be very pleased

650
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:07,879
Speaker 1: with black and white in general. Yeah, I'm not saying

651
00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 1: he was lazy. No, but let's take a step back

652
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,719
Speaker 1: here for a second and examine the idea that you

653
00:37:13,840 --> 00:37:16,480
Speaker 1: thought M. C. Escher was a pretty amazing artist when

654
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 1: you just imagined that he was sitting in his studio

655
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 1: drawing all of this stuff with a pencil. Now, really

656
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:25,400
Speaker 1: let it sink in that he carved these things in

657
00:37:25,600 --> 00:37:29,719
Speaker 1: reverse out of wood or limestone or limestone and then

658
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:35,400
Speaker 1: use these crazy techniques to make these extraordinarily detailed, incredibly

659
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:40,440
Speaker 1: precise and technical works of art. It's amazing. It really

660
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 1: is amazing, truly astounding, And like you said, there are

661
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: a few of those stones and woodblocks that are owned

662
00:37:47,080 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 1: by the mc Escher Foundation puts on every single one

663
00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:52,440
Speaker 1: of them, and apparently they will they will display them

664
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: occasionally along with his works, right, which I imagine seeing

665
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,160
Speaker 1: that and then looking at the work of art, and

666
00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:01,759
Speaker 1: then going back looking at that limestone and then looking

667
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 1: at the work of art. It really kind of sinks in, like,

668
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:07,440
Speaker 1: oh my, yeah, I'd love to see an exhibition of

669
00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:11,560
Speaker 1: his stuff me too. They've picked up in recent years. Yeah,

670
00:38:11,560 --> 00:38:14,920
Speaker 1: it seems like he's being more appreciated, uh as a

671
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:19,480
Speaker 1: truly great artist and less college dorm wall material. In

672
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 1: two thousand and eleven, the record for highest overall attendance

673
00:38:23,719 --> 00:38:26,000
Speaker 1: in the world out of all the museums in the

674
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,200
Speaker 1: world that year, was at the Centro Cultural bank oh To, Brazil,

675
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:36,480
Speaker 1: which held their Magical World of Escher exhibit seventy thousand visitors,

676
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 1: about ten thousand a day. Yep. So, if you think

677
00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:45,640
Speaker 1: lithography and woodcutting sounds difficult. We'll talk a minute about

678
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:50,520
Speaker 1: meso tent Uh. That is sort of like wood cutting,

679
00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:54,000
Speaker 1: except you're using a sheet of copper that starts out

680
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:57,280
Speaker 1: as a rough surface and then use these little tools

681
00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:00,000
Speaker 1: to smooth out things that are going to be the image,

682
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:03,120
Speaker 1: applying that ink and then wiping it off. Right, So

683
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:07,120
Speaker 1: the places you smooth out are don't have ink, the

684
00:39:07,160 --> 00:39:09,320
Speaker 1: ones that are gonna be white on the paper, blank

685
00:39:09,560 --> 00:39:12,359
Speaker 1: on the paper, right. Um, it's the rough edges that

686
00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:15,359
Speaker 1: hold the ink. So you cover the whole thing with ink,

687
00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:19,440
Speaker 1: wipe it down. The smooth starts parts, parts come clean.

688
00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:23,719
Speaker 1: The rough stuff um has the ink, and you can

689
00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:26,239
Speaker 1: use this like this is this isn't like oh look

690
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:31,800
Speaker 1: I made an next this is like incredibly fine um

691
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:35,600
Speaker 1: stipling is possible with these copper plates and all. This

692
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:38,919
Speaker 1: a meso tint. And that I that you were talking

693
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:40,920
Speaker 1: about going with the skull, if you go back and

694
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:43,319
Speaker 1: look at that, that was a meso tint. Yeah, it

695
00:39:43,360 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 1: was dew drop, very detailed cupped leaf showing a single

696
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:50,799
Speaker 1: drop of dew inside it, with all kinds of cool reflections.

697
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,399
Speaker 1: But Estra called this the black art. Uh. He only

698
00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 1: made eight of these because it is a real undertaking,

699
00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:01,759
Speaker 1: and I think he is. He did a handful of

700
00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:04,719
Speaker 1: him and then moved on to the far easier woodcutting.

701
00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:10,200
Speaker 1: Right right, He's like, I came back, baby, all right,

702
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:12,759
Speaker 1: Well we'll take a break and then we'll come back

703
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,600
Speaker 1: and pick up with his life story again, which is

704
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:18,160
Speaker 1: I believably left off in what end of World War two?

705
00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:43,759
Speaker 1: Sounds right? All right? Okay, world War two is over?

706
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:48,480
Speaker 1: Uh mc yesher was, like a lot of people, very

707
00:40:48,560 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 1: rattled by that experience in Europe. And at this point

708
00:40:53,280 --> 00:40:56,839
Speaker 1: he's still is not a super famous artist making tons

709
00:40:56,880 --> 00:40:59,840
Speaker 1: of money. No, but he's more famous than than this

710
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:02,719
Speaker 1: makes him out to be. Like he he's he's got

711
00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:07,000
Speaker 1: some renown in the Netherlands or certain circle tibbits. Yeah, um,

712
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:10,920
Speaker 1: but he's not anywhere anywhere even approaching how he is

713
00:41:10,960 --> 00:41:13,040
Speaker 1: today or how he has been the last few decades,

714
00:41:13,040 --> 00:41:15,960
Speaker 1: since about like the late sixties. Yeah, college dorms have

715
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:18,880
Speaker 1: not yet started putting his stuff everywhere. No, but the

716
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:22,799
Speaker 1: people who who most appreciate what he's doing our scientists

717
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:26,520
Speaker 1: and mathematicians who are like this is astounding. This guy

718
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:30,040
Speaker 1: is taking what we write out as formulas and turning

719
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:33,479
Speaker 1: them into art. And making them precise, like you could

720
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:37,239
Speaker 1: describe this work of art as a formula. That's that

721
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:39,360
Speaker 1: is what mc escher was able to do. He was

722
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:42,960
Speaker 1: able to take math and translated into a visual art. Yeah.

723
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:45,440
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, remember what you said earlier. This

724
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,480
Speaker 1: is where we are in his life. Where he is, Um,

725
00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:51,240
Speaker 1: he is not in the Italian countryside. He's been ripped

726
00:41:51,239 --> 00:41:54,000
Speaker 1: from its bodice. So his muse has gone and he

727
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:56,680
Speaker 1: is now looking inward for his inspiration in his own,

728
00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:00,440
Speaker 1: um unique brain. He's being forced into his own bodice.

729
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:04,840
Speaker 1: Face first, Uh, this is where he starts with these tessellations,

730
00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:08,920
Speaker 1: more elaborate geometric shapes. He's doing the lizards and the

731
00:42:08,960 --> 00:42:13,880
Speaker 1: birds and the insects. Is tessellations really really cool stuff? Um?

732
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:16,520
Speaker 1: His brother said, hey, dude, you know what you should

733
00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:19,040
Speaker 1: do is go talk to a crystallographer. He's like, if

734
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:22,120
Speaker 1: you want to talk detailed shapes and math. Uh, And

735
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:24,560
Speaker 1: he does so and that taught him a lot. And

736
00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:28,800
Speaker 1: then he learned about the seventeen seventeen wallpaper groups, which

737
00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:32,239
Speaker 1: is so dense that you know, how much do we

738
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:34,960
Speaker 1: even want to talk about it? Well, the we'll just

739
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:37,480
Speaker 1: sum it up. The seventeen wallpaper groups basically is a

740
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:42,960
Speaker 1: mathematical concept that says every geometric pattern two dimensional geometric

741
00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:46,480
Speaker 1: pattern falls into one of seventeen categories. There's only seventeen,

742
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:50,040
Speaker 1: and they're called, kind of half jokingly, the wallpaper groups,

743
00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:54,200
Speaker 1: because wallpaper has geometric patterns are usually right. Um, as

744
00:42:54,239 --> 00:42:58,760
Speaker 1: your couldn't understand it mathematically. Yeah, it was proved out

745
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:02,960
Speaker 1: twice independently that there are seven teen wallpapers, and the

746
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 1: mathematical proof. One of the things that's interesting, Chuck, is

747
00:43:05,520 --> 00:43:09,840
Speaker 1: the Alhambra apparently is the only place in the world

748
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:16,160
Speaker 1: that contains all seventeen geometric wallpaper patterns. That's pretty cool. Yeah,

749
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,120
Speaker 1: so of course this would appeal to Esher, but he

750
00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:22,279
Speaker 1: didn't understand. He couldn't sit down and explain, like, we

751
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,719
Speaker 1: can't what the seven team wallpaper groups are or what

752
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 1: they mean mathematically, but he understood them intuitively, and as

753
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:36,000
Speaker 1: he became friends with mathematicians, uh you know, about mid career, um,

754
00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:39,040
Speaker 1: he was apparently kind of amused to find like, you know,

755
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:41,600
Speaker 1: these guys spend all this time writing this stuff out

756
00:43:41,600 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 1: in these formulas, and I just know it. It was

757
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,919
Speaker 1: almost like I was born knowing it. Yeah, I mean,

758
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:49,919
Speaker 1: I guess he was real cocky. Yeah, he wasn't really

759
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:52,560
Speaker 1: And I didn't get the idea either that he was

760
00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:55,920
Speaker 1: like take your math and shove it. He was just

761
00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:58,560
Speaker 1: a little more amused that, like you've got these mathematical

762
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:02,759
Speaker 1: proofs that uh like, I'm drawing this stuff from my

763
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 1: creative brain on limestone, limestone, cutting it out of wood. Uh.

764
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 1: So I think he appreciated the way they coalesced. But

765
00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:14,799
Speaker 1: uh and he was very like you said, most of

766
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:18,000
Speaker 1: his friends were mathematicians, I think later in life. Who

767
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 1: did he have roses? Yeah, Roger and Lionel Penrose, which

768
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:24,719
Speaker 1: I love how it was described here, father and son

769
00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:30,120
Speaker 1: mathematician team. Yeah, you know those they were matching dolphins shorts,

770
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:34,200
Speaker 1: oh man, part of their uniform. I wish people still

771
00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:37,399
Speaker 1: were those. You'd you ever were those? No, they were

772
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:40,080
Speaker 1: a little before my time. Well they were for joggers

773
00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:46,880
Speaker 1: and runners. Yeah, and eleven and who do I forgot

774
00:44:46,920 --> 00:44:50,480
Speaker 1: about that? Yeah? That is what Hooters waitress shorts with.

775
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:54,879
Speaker 1: Remember bronze pantyhose yeah, and then chunky white socks. Yeah.

776
00:44:54,960 --> 00:44:57,600
Speaker 1: And it was a very high top. Was bizarre and interesting.

777
00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:01,440
Speaker 1: Look somebody put that together and not a. Um, do

778
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:06,520
Speaker 1: you remember there was a there was a Hooters airline? What? Yeah, wow,

779
00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:09,160
Speaker 1: that kind of rings a bell. Yeah, that was very

780
00:45:09,160 --> 00:45:11,520
Speaker 1: short lived, I imagine, I believe, so it was pretty

781
00:45:11,520 --> 00:45:14,759
Speaker 1: short lived. Interesting, I guess. Yeah. So you would get

782
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:17,880
Speaker 1: asked like what kind of drink and what style of

783
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,720
Speaker 1: chicken wings do you want? Everything did serve chicken wings

784
00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:23,200
Speaker 1: on those, of course, But can you imagine being on

785
00:45:23,239 --> 00:45:25,680
Speaker 1: an airplane being forced to smell chicken wings the whole

786
00:45:25,680 --> 00:45:28,520
Speaker 1: time if you didn't like it. That's like every flight

787
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:31,720
Speaker 1: I ever take. It's true, there's somebody with some stinky food.

788
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:34,120
Speaker 1: You know. If I sit next to somebody on the

789
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:36,200
Speaker 1: plane and I'm going to eat, I asked them if

790
00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:38,600
Speaker 1: it's okay if I eat, Like if you bring food on.

791
00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:42,880
Speaker 1: I don't bring food onto a flight sometimes, dude, you

792
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:46,440
Speaker 1: just have to. It's a long flight and run out

793
00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:48,880
Speaker 1: of turkey wraps, like in the first half a second,

794
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:51,839
Speaker 1: so you just pull out your what my kung pao

795
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:53,759
Speaker 1: out of your pocket you had just in case they're

796
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:56,360
Speaker 1: out of turkey raps, not even in a container, just

797
00:45:56,440 --> 00:46:01,040
Speaker 1: in my pocket. Oh goodness. So I thought this part

798
00:46:01,120 --> 00:46:03,880
Speaker 1: was sort of amusing. Um, how orderly he always was

799
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 1: with his art, and he tried to get into chaos

800
00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:13,520
Speaker 1: a bit in this one work contrast Parentheses Order and

801
00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:18,239
Speaker 1: Chaos Parentheses, wherein he went in dug up a bunch

802
00:46:18,280 --> 00:46:21,240
Speaker 1: of trash and said, I will I will draw chaos,

803
00:46:22,080 --> 00:46:23,879
Speaker 1: and it ended up being if you go and look

804
00:46:23,920 --> 00:46:26,759
Speaker 1: at it, there's like a broken bottle, broken eggshell and

805
00:46:26,840 --> 00:46:29,239
Speaker 1: open sardine tin and broken clay pipe and some other

806
00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:34,040
Speaker 1: refuse drawn to like perfect or I guess woodcutter lithographed

807
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:39,279
Speaker 1: with perfect, beautiful precision. That was chaos his interpretation of it.

808
00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:41,680
Speaker 1: He just couldn't do it. He was very much preoccupied

809
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:43,839
Speaker 1: with Kassi has a very famous quote, probably his most

810
00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:47,480
Speaker 1: famous coat quote, we adore chaos because we love to

811
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:52,319
Speaker 1: produce order. And he's like, by we, I mean me, Yeah. Sure,

812
00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 1: sounded very much like an eye statement, but he was.

813
00:46:55,239 --> 00:46:58,960
Speaker 1: He was very much into geometry and precision and clean

814
00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:02,120
Speaker 1: lines and all that. Yeah. And also as his career

815
00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:08,800
Speaker 1: would progress, this this these repeating patterns on a finite space. Um.

816
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:11,759
Speaker 1: If you've seen his circle limit series, that's where you'll

817
00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:15,000
Speaker 1: find the fish or these demons. And they start out

818
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 1: with like one in the center and then there's a

819
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:19,480
Speaker 1: pattern all around, and it as it gets closer and

820
00:47:19,480 --> 00:47:21,600
Speaker 1: close to the edge, they get smaller and smaller and smaller,

821
00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:23,880
Speaker 1: and you can just sort of imagine that there is

822
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:27,799
Speaker 1: no end to these shapes, that they're just going infinitely

823
00:47:27,840 --> 00:47:30,680
Speaker 1: around this sphere perfectly. But again you have to stop

824
00:47:30,680 --> 00:47:32,919
Speaker 1: and remind yourself this is a two dimensional image I'm

825
00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:36,320
Speaker 1: looking at. And then secondly this is cut out of wood.

826
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:41,200
Speaker 1: But yeah, he apparently made a three dimensional wood carving

827
00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:43,759
Speaker 1: of his circle limits series later in life. And I'll

828
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:46,440
Speaker 1: bet that's spectacular to see. Two he made it, what

829
00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:50,040
Speaker 1: a three dimensional wood carving of it, basically proving that

830
00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:54,040
Speaker 1: his his two dimensional drawing was accurate. Yeah, because he

831
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:57,880
Speaker 1: made it in the three dimensions. That's awesome. Yeah, it's pretty.

832
00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:00,440
Speaker 1: He was just showing off towards the end there. I

833
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:05,160
Speaker 1: like reptiles aside from his early countryside work, that is

834
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:09,239
Speaker 1: far superior. The tessellation of the lizards and reptiles is

835
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:12,320
Speaker 1: really neat. That's the one that has the lizards being

836
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:17,080
Speaker 1: like crawling off of the page as a drawn image,

837
00:48:17,440 --> 00:48:20,239
Speaker 1: circling around, walking over some books, and then crawling back

838
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:23,839
Speaker 1: over onto the page as a drawn image. Yeah, very neat.

839
00:48:24,040 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 1: It's a it's a lot like the hands drawing or

840
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:31,080
Speaker 1: drawing hands one kind of where the hands are drawing

841
00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:34,320
Speaker 1: themselves or one another, but they're also three dimensional two

842
00:48:34,600 --> 00:48:37,040
Speaker 1: and that actually kind of jobs with another quote he

843
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:40,480
Speaker 1: had um that I think really sums that style of

844
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 1: art up. He said, the flat shape irritates me. I

845
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 1: feel as if I were shouting to my figures, you

846
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:50,280
Speaker 1: are too fictitious for me. You just lie there, static

847
00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:53,360
Speaker 1: and frozen together. Do something. Come out of there and

848
00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:56,560
Speaker 1: show me what you are capable of. And he would

849
00:48:56,560 --> 00:48:58,600
Speaker 1: shout it just like that, and then Jetta would back

850
00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:02,840
Speaker 1: out of the room slowly, pekay, dear your t uh.

851
00:49:02,920 --> 00:49:05,359
Speaker 1: And that sort of brings us to with the reptiles. Uh.

852
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:08,839
Speaker 1: We we need to talk a little bit about illusion, um,

853
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:12,879
Speaker 1: because it started sort of early on. He was preoccupied

854
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:16,120
Speaker 1: with illusion, whether it was like these lizards coming off

855
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:20,239
Speaker 1: the page or still life in Street, which is a

856
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:23,920
Speaker 1: tabletop that blends into a street scene. Yeah, it's really cool.

857
00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:28,080
Speaker 1: I like that one too, um. Or relativity, which I

858
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:30,160
Speaker 1: don't know, I mean, is there a most famous maybe

859
00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:34,680
Speaker 1: hands it's between hands self portrait with sphere and relativity.

860
00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:37,719
Speaker 1: Relativity is the one with the staircases and people going

861
00:49:37,800 --> 00:49:41,440
Speaker 1: up and downstairs that don't go anywhere, but they go everywhere,

862
00:49:41,480 --> 00:49:43,759
Speaker 1: and they circle back on each other, and it's just

863
00:49:43,840 --> 00:49:48,080
Speaker 1: an impossible staircase actually called Penrose stairs. Oh really yeah,

864
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:52,040
Speaker 1: after the famous father and son mathematician team, and speaking

865
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:54,920
Speaker 1: of the Penrose Is, they'd just say, mathemagician, I just

866
00:49:54,960 --> 00:49:59,480
Speaker 1: invented something I did that's amazing, completely by accident, um

867
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:02,840
Speaker 1: the pen Roses. That would be great math magician. I

868
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:10,960
Speaker 1: bet that's something for But the Penroses apparently wrote they

869
00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:14,320
Speaker 1: saw some of Esher's work, wrote a paper explaining his

870
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:18,400
Speaker 1: work about impossible things like impossible stairs, which came to

871
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:23,240
Speaker 1: be called Penrose stairs. And uh, Escher was either mailed

872
00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:25,560
Speaker 1: a copy of this or somebody pointed out to him,

873
00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:29,760
Speaker 1: so he created something called house of stairs or upstairs downstairs,

874
00:50:29,800 --> 00:50:32,239
Speaker 1: one of the two, and Um sent one of the

875
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:35,719
Speaker 1: original prints to the Penroses. So in a way their

876
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:39,279
Speaker 1: correspondence and inspiration for one another was like a set

877
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:44,319
Speaker 1: of impossible stairs in real life. That interesting. And this

878
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:46,680
Speaker 1: is you know, we were talking earlier about how his

879
00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:51,720
Speaker 1: works somehow felt unsettling, and you know the subject matter

880
00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:55,520
Speaker 1: as well. When you think about these the subjects walking

881
00:50:55,560 --> 00:51:00,759
Speaker 1: in relativity, clearly never getting anywhere, walking downstairs sideways. All

882
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:04,040
Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm walking back into the same staircase

883
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:06,560
Speaker 1: I was just on. Like you imagine if these things

884
00:51:06,560 --> 00:51:11,000
Speaker 1: were to come alive, they would be frustrated, angry people. Right.

885
00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:13,439
Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, one of the um

886
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:18,160
Speaker 1: the one that you're just talking about upstairs, downstairs, they

887
00:51:18,239 --> 00:51:24,120
Speaker 1: that was supposedly based on some a staircase in his school,

888
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:27,919
Speaker 1: which suddenly says quite a bit about his psychology. Don't

889
00:51:27,920 --> 00:51:31,240
Speaker 1: you think, well, how so well? I mean, like these

890
00:51:31,239 --> 00:51:33,839
Speaker 1: these students aren't going anywhere, they're not even human their

891
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:37,480
Speaker 1: centipedes with human faces, and they're kind of trapped in

892
00:51:37,520 --> 00:51:43,600
Speaker 1: this what you could definitely call like a uh a

893
00:51:43,719 --> 00:51:49,120
Speaker 1: purposeless existence in this building. It's kind of a dark building. Interesting.

894
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:53,799
Speaker 1: So he does finally achieve really great fame later in

895
00:51:53,840 --> 00:51:57,440
Speaker 1: his life. Like you said, he was holding exhibitions in

896
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:00,239
Speaker 1: the Netherlands and in a little bit in Europe, but

897
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:03,799
Speaker 1: he did one in Belgium in ninety that led to

898
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:07,960
Speaker 1: an article in The Studio, which was an art magazine,

899
00:52:08,680 --> 00:52:11,919
Speaker 1: and that captured the attention of a journalist who wrote

900
00:52:11,920 --> 00:52:15,320
Speaker 1: about him in Time and Life magazines, which definitely propped

901
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:18,120
Speaker 1: him up a little bit. Uh. Then that led to

902
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:22,359
Speaker 1: a larger exhibition at the International Mathematical Congress in fifty four.

903
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:27,960
Speaker 1: Flash forward to sixty six, he was featured in Um

904
00:52:28,120 --> 00:52:33,240
Speaker 1: Mathematical Games column in Scientific American by Martin Gardner Mathew magician.

905
00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:38,880
Speaker 1: I guarantee that's the thing Um, And that increased his

906
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:40,880
Speaker 1: And this was sixty six, so it was kind of

907
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:44,600
Speaker 1: perfect timing with the hippies and the drugs and the counterculture.

908
00:52:45,000 --> 00:52:48,160
Speaker 1: And I guess who was it, Graham Nash, Graham Nash

909
00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:50,960
Speaker 1: Mick Jagger sent him a fan ladder and made the

910
00:52:51,000 --> 00:52:54,359
Speaker 1: mistake of calling him by his first name. Sasure did

911
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:57,799
Speaker 1: not appreciate Um. Stanley Kubrick tried to recruit him to

912
00:52:57,880 --> 00:53:01,040
Speaker 1: make two thousand one of Space Autists see a fourth

913
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:04,719
Speaker 1: dimensional film. Huh. Yeah, there's this interesting article called the

914
00:53:04,719 --> 00:53:07,600
Speaker 1: Impossible World of mc Escher that Stephen Poole wrote in

915
00:53:07,600 --> 00:53:09,960
Speaker 1: The Guardian that has a lot of that stuff in it.

916
00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:11,759
Speaker 1: But he was he was kind of like, no, I'm

917
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:15,319
Speaker 1: good over here with the math mathematician friends. Well, once

918
00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:19,360
Speaker 1: he was featured in Scientific American, that led to the

919
00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:21,520
Speaker 1: big daddy of them all. He got featured in Rolling

920
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:24,200
Speaker 1: Stone and then after that it was it was all over.

921
00:53:24,280 --> 00:53:30,439
Speaker 1: He was huge, dorm room, huge fight works. Uh, then

922
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:33,120
Speaker 1: this doesn't count all the sketches and drafts. These are

923
00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:37,080
Speaker 1: like the actual final works. And like we said earlier,

924
00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:40,960
Speaker 1: he died in two cancer the age of seventy three.

925
00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:43,680
Speaker 1: And I tried to find more about his family, but

926
00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:45,480
Speaker 1: there's not a lot out there, like his sons and

927
00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:47,920
Speaker 1: whether or not his I mean, I guess his grandkids

928
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:53,560
Speaker 1: would be contemporaries of ours. Yep, I don't know, like

929
00:53:53,640 --> 00:53:58,640
Speaker 1: he was born in eight well, great grandkids maybe, yeah, Okay,

930
00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:02,200
Speaker 1: I guess if his kids were born in the nineteen twenties, Yeah,

931
00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:07,520
Speaker 1: contemporaries of our parents. Maybe the old stars Yeah boomers

932
00:54:07,920 --> 00:54:13,560
Speaker 1: boomery boomer um. So we get that right. In that

933
00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 1: that Journey to Infinity movie, apparently all three of his

934
00:54:16,440 --> 00:54:18,799
Speaker 1: children appear in it. If you want to know more

935
00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:22,520
Speaker 1: about them, go watch that. I saw one picture of

936
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:25,040
Speaker 1: him where he looked a lot like our old colleague

937
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:27,839
Speaker 1: John Fuller when John had a beard. Oh yeah he did,

938
00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:30,279
Speaker 1: didn't it's a little bit like him. Yeah, it's not

939
00:54:30,320 --> 00:54:34,520
Speaker 1: expecting that. So there's mc sure that. Speaking of not

940
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:43,360
Speaker 1: expecting that, uh, Bikini Babe on Corvette and Hooters Airline

941
00:54:43,560 --> 00:54:46,480
Speaker 1: made appearances in the MCS. I just want to point out,

942
00:54:47,000 --> 00:54:48,759
Speaker 1: if you want to know more about any of those things,

943
00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:52,200
Speaker 1: go on to the Internet and start searching. And since

944
00:54:52,239 --> 00:54:57,359
Speaker 1: I said that, it's time for listener mail. Hey, guys

945
00:54:57,400 --> 00:54:59,319
Speaker 1: have been listening to your show since two thousand eleven.

946
00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:02,960
Speaker 1: They even see I've even seen you on your first

947
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:05,399
Speaker 1: amazing show in Chicago and had to wait a whole

948
00:55:05,480 --> 00:55:09,280
Speaker 1: year to hear that on the podcast. That's how it works.

949
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:13,440
Speaker 1: It's not even guaranteed that it's going to be the

950
00:55:13,640 --> 00:55:16,359
Speaker 1: show you saw. Yeah. A lot of podcasts put out

951
00:55:16,600 --> 00:55:20,279
Speaker 1: just tons and tons of live shows. Uh, we don't

952
00:55:20,280 --> 00:55:23,279
Speaker 1: do that. Yeah, and I honestly think the live shows

953
00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:25,359
Speaker 1: are a little better in person. I don't think they

954
00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:27,879
Speaker 1: make as a fan of other podcasts, I don't think

955
00:55:27,880 --> 00:55:30,960
Speaker 1: they make for the best just regular content. I think

956
00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:33,160
Speaker 1: most people think that, but we we just so that's

957
00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:35,520
Speaker 1: why we only put out the one. So back to

958
00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:37,560
Speaker 1: the letter, this show is so great. I would even

959
00:55:37,680 --> 00:55:40,719
Speaker 1: save high interest episodes for my son to listen to

960
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:43,879
Speaker 1: over the years. Uh, you were one of the few

961
00:55:43,880 --> 00:55:46,120
Speaker 1: people that can keep his attention. I never thought it

962
00:55:46,160 --> 00:55:48,160
Speaker 1: would write, but as a science teacher, you said something

963
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:50,520
Speaker 1: recently that it's so true. Some of the best science

964
00:55:50,520 --> 00:55:54,520
Speaker 1: websites are children's science websites. Or if a definition is

965
00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:56,920
Speaker 1: too difficult, I always tell people to look up a

966
00:55:57,000 --> 00:56:00,520
Speaker 1: child's definition for that word. Uh. Really good tip, guys.

967
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:03,040
Speaker 1: Thanks for sharing that. Thanks for all your work, and

968
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:04,880
Speaker 1: now I don't have to figure out what to do

969
00:56:05,480 --> 00:56:08,320
Speaker 1: now that I am finally caught up. Keep up the

970
00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:10,680
Speaker 1: great work. And that is from Jenny with an Eye.

971
00:56:11,000 --> 00:56:13,480
Speaker 1: Thanks Jenny with an eye. Hopefully you dot the eye

972
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:16,160
Speaker 1: with the heart, maybe with a little reflection on the

973
00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:19,160
Speaker 1: side of the heart. Remember that one two curve lines

974
00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:22,719
Speaker 1: top with topped and uh, I guess bottomed with a

975
00:56:22,800 --> 00:56:25,080
Speaker 1: straight line. I think I know what you're talking about here.

976
00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:32,280
Speaker 1: I'll show you, oh boy, since we just oh sure

977
00:56:32,520 --> 00:56:36,839
Speaker 1: that yeah, yeah, it almost looks like a bent Roman

978
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:40,320
Speaker 1: numeral two inside the heart. That's a that's the reflection

979
00:56:40,480 --> 00:56:43,040
Speaker 1: of light. That's where the lights coming from. It's beautiful.

980
00:56:43,040 --> 00:56:47,640
Speaker 1: Thanks treasure that you're welcome to I wasn't gonna give

981
00:56:47,680 --> 00:56:49,479
Speaker 1: it to you, but now I have to just sign

982
00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:51,600
Speaker 1: it first. If you want to get in touch with us,

983
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:54,919
Speaker 1: you can go onto stuff you Should Know dot com

984
00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:57,000
Speaker 1: and look for our social links there, and you can

985
00:56:57,000 --> 00:56:58,880
Speaker 1: also send us an email like Jenny with an I

986
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:03,280
Speaker 1: did you and send it to stuff podcast at iHeart

987
00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:09,120
Speaker 1: radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production

988
00:57:09,160 --> 00:57:11,880
Speaker 1: of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for

989
00:57:11,960 --> 00:57:14,719
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

990
00:57:14,800 --> 00:57:19,680
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H