When I had to choose a piece of art to analyze, I thought about M.C. Escher’s work. I was in art club in high school and we focused on his art frequently. I decided to go with Relativity. Relativity is a lithograph that was printed in 1953 (Escher, Relativity). It has a lot going on, with its many figures walking and interacting with the environment. It looks alien to our world in comparison, due to the characters moving in many directions including upside down, depending on which side is viewed at a time. In analyzing Relativity, I focused mainly on the environment, characters, and the overall design to create an opinion of what the artist is trying to express as being important to this lithograph.
The environment of Relativity has indoor and outdoor components to what looks like a building. Inside the building there are 7 staircases where characters are walking and doing various activities (McDaniel, "#25: Relativity by M. C. Escher.") There are archways and multiple doors leading to the outside space and other areas are left to the viewer’s imagination. In the outside space there are plants and trees scattered throughout. Near the center of the print you can see the sun beaming through an archway, indicating it is still daytime. Escher seems to focus mainly on the inside of the building, but on a closer look, you see light coming through multiple hallways and archways to create a balance between the dark and the light shades, which is clever. All of the aspects of the environment show us very ordinary and common surroundings.
There are many different figures throughout Relativity, 16 to be exact (Escher, Relativity). The figures are indoor and outdoor, spread equally among the work. They are all doing different activities. On further analysis, the figures inside are mostly all working while the other figures outside are relaxing and interacting with each other. The “worker” figures are carrying baskets, trays with drinks, and over the shoulder satchels....