The four elements - Air 1952

M.C. Escher made this wood engraving called 'The Four Elements - Air' in 1954. The air element here is a flock of stylized birds, tightly packed, alternating in hue. Escher had a thing for visual puzzles, and here, he turns simple shapes into something complex. The birds are these flat, graphic forms, but the way they fit together creates movement. Look closely at the beak of one bird, and how it interlocks with the tail of the next. It reminds me a bit of how we fit strokes of paint together to suggest form. I also love the limited color palette. The contrast between the dark green and reddish-brown brings out the texture of the woodcut, and it's so different from most art being made at the time. It reminds you that there are so many ways of seeing and so many different visual languages that artists use. Like, for example, the prints of Hokusai. They're all part of a bigger conversation, one that stretches across time and cultures.