Flor de Pascua - Convention 1921

This is Flor de Pascua - Convention, a monochromatic print by M.C. Escher, and it’s all about lines, repetition, and maybe a little bit of self-reflection. Look at the bold black and white contrast; it’s so graphic. Escher isn't messing around with soft edges; he's giving us crisp divisions. There’s this figure in the middle – naked, lost in thought, almost like he's trying to figure out the puzzle of himself. And the vertical lines in the background and foreground? They're both a barrier and a framework, like the bars of a cage or the lines of a drawing pad. That little finger touching his lip, that’s a mark of concentration, of being caught in the act of thinking. The whole print has a similar feel to some of Otto Dix's more bleak self-portraits, where the artist is both subject and object, observer and observed. It’s a convention, sure, but what is he trying to figure out? That’s the real question here.