Horses and Birds 1949

M.C. Escher made this print, Horses and Birds, which plays with positive and negative space, creating figures that flip between horses and birds. The stark black and white palette enhances this effect, making us question what we see. Look at how the solid black shapes of the birds transform into the white silhouettes of the horses below; it's a visual seesaw. The graphic quality of the print, with its distinct lines and shapes, reminds me of early animation. Each mark, each line, is deliberate, working to create this mind-bending optical illusion. Escher’s work is unique, but I see echoes of artists like Al Held who explored the idea of flatness and depth. But Escher, he takes it somewhere else entirely. His work reminds us that art doesn't always have to make sense; sometimes, it just has to make us think, or better yet, make us question our own perceptions.