1 00:00:11,600 --> 00:00:13,580 (FOOTSTEPS) 2 00:00:18,080 --> 00:00:20,060 (PAPER RUSTLES) 3 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:22,100 (PLATEN ROLLS) 4 00:00:54,720 --> 00:00:56,700 (TATTOO NEEDLE BUZZES) 5 00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:00,140 (BLUES MUSIC PLAYS) 6 00:01:43,500 --> 00:01:48,060 Yesterday, I received another crazy letter, 7 00:01:48,140 --> 00:01:51,780 unsigned and without a sender, postmarked San Francisco. 8 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,420 "Escher, you're an utter madman. 9 00:01:55,700 --> 00:01:58,820 "Yes, utterly beautifully mad. 10 00:01:58,900 --> 00:02:03,580 "I thank the source of your madness. A math teacher." 11 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:06,860 How on earth? 12 00:02:06,940 --> 00:02:08,900 # PAT WEST AND VASCO: Psychedelic Sky 13 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:23,180 The hippies in San Francisco 14 00:02:23,260 --> 00:02:26,460 continue to print my work clandestinely. 15 00:02:26,540 --> 00:02:30,140 I managed to get hold of a couple of horrendous results 16 00:02:30,220 --> 00:02:32,860 through the mediation of a friendly customer 17 00:02:32,920 --> 00:02:34,900 who lives in that area. 18 00:02:34,980 --> 00:02:39,500 I cannot understand why the out-of-control youths of today 19 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:42,300 appreciate my work so much. 20 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:45,220 It does get tiring after a while. 21 00:02:47,260 --> 00:02:50,740 I received placemats with my work printed on them. 22 00:02:52,660 --> 00:02:57,780 They just go ahead and do it without asking me or being ashamed of it. 23 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:05,940 My first exposure to Escher was 24 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:10,220 in either late '66 or early 1967. 25 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:12,660 I was at my apartment in London 26 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:15,100 and there was a knock at the door. 27 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:17,820 And a friend of mine, Eric Burdon, 28 00:03:17,900 --> 00:03:20,420 who is a lead singer for The Animals, 29 00:03:20,500 --> 00:03:25,940 a very popular group, was on my doorstep with a book in his hand 30 00:03:26,020 --> 00:03:29,740 and the book he had brought was one of the early Escher books. 31 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:32,220 And I must tell you that, er... 32 00:03:33,660 --> 00:03:36,420 ..I think it literally changed my life. 33 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:39,060 So I called him and I said, 34 00:03:39,140 --> 00:03:42,900 "Good morning, Mr Escher. I don't want to disturb you. 35 00:03:42,980 --> 00:03:45,820 "I'm an Englishman. I just wanted to let you know 36 00:03:45,900 --> 00:03:48,380 "what a brilliant artist I think you are." 37 00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:50,420 And that's all I wanted to say. 38 00:03:50,500 --> 00:03:53,140 But then he said, "I'm not an artist." 39 00:03:55,580 --> 00:03:58,620 And it was shocking to me to hear Escher 40 00:03:58,700 --> 00:04:03,060 tell me that he wasn't an artist because, of course, I think he is. 41 00:04:03,140 --> 00:04:07,140 So I said, "OK, if you're not an artist, what are you?" 42 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:09,820 He said, "I'm a mathematician." 43 00:04:09,900 --> 00:04:14,300 (CHATTER( And I thought, "Wow! He doesn't really know 44 00:04:14,380 --> 00:04:20,980 "or understand how popular and why his work is so popular 45 00:04:21,060 --> 00:04:23,620 "amongst all the younger generation." 46 00:04:43,300 --> 00:04:46,740 Yesterday, I received a visit from English artists. 47 00:04:46,820 --> 00:04:50,300 He was dressed up like a clown in blue and red all over. 48 00:04:50,380 --> 00:04:53,060 She had full circles around her eyes. 49 00:04:53,140 --> 00:04:56,180 It's all very nice, these little love-ins. 50 00:04:56,260 --> 00:05:00,140 They came to offer me flowers. I don't understand it. 51 00:05:00,220 --> 00:05:02,180 They appreciate my work but I don't care 52 00:05:02,260 --> 00:05:04,780 one bit for what they're making these days. 53 00:05:04,860 --> 00:05:08,020 "You make op art." I don't even know what it is. 54 00:05:08,100 --> 00:05:11,700 Op art. I've been making this work for years. 55 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:15,020 I keep wandering around in riddles. 56 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:52,500 On June the 17th, 1898, 57 00:05:52,560 --> 00:05:55,140 I was born here in Leeuwarden 58 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:57,580 in this stately home... 59 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:02,100 ..the Princessehof. 60 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:11,660 I come from an exact-sciences family 61 00:06:11,740 --> 00:06:15,020 and I have the privilege of having parents who are not only educated 62 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:17,220 but wealthy as well. 63 00:06:20,620 --> 00:06:23,780 I am a vulnerable boy and the paediatrician 64 00:06:23,860 --> 00:06:26,620 prescribes me a fairly long stay at the seaside 65 00:06:26,700 --> 00:06:31,620 at the children's pensione Villa Groot Kijkduin. 66 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:33,820 I also attend school there. 67 00:06:35,540 --> 00:06:38,940 The only bright spots are the drawing lessons. 68 00:06:39,020 --> 00:06:42,140 Not because I'm good at it but because it's my only comfort 69 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:44,180 during this awful time. 70 00:06:44,260 --> 00:06:48,660 The fear of not being able to keep up is the problem. 71 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:55,300 # Roll on lazy Tennessee Moon 72 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:57,740 # How my heart is pining 73 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,020 # Just because you're shining 74 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:04,820 # Come around tomorrow afternoon... 75 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:07,140 After secondary school, I attend 76 00:07:07,220 --> 00:07:10,740 the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Arts. 77 00:07:18,460 --> 00:07:22,820 My graphics arts teacher is Jessurun de Mesquita. 78 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:25,180 I owe a lot to him. 79 00:07:25,260 --> 00:07:29,220 He saw potential in my woodcuts and, after only three days, 80 00:07:29,300 --> 00:07:32,420 he forced a switch to continue in that direction. 81 00:07:33,460 --> 00:07:36,140 Had he not spoken with my parents, I would have continued 82 00:07:36,220 --> 00:07:41,220 in architecture and I have never had an interest in building houses. 83 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:43,860 # I'll be kissing her soon 84 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:47,420 # Old Tennessee Moon. # 85 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,940 I can work like a dog one day 86 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:00,420 and hardly do a thing the next. 87 00:08:00,500 --> 00:08:04,860 On those days, I stride up and down the room like a madman, 88 00:08:04,940 --> 00:08:08,020 when I'm being consumed by the desire to give shape 89 00:08:08,100 --> 00:08:12,180 to a grand idea without the ability to do so. 90 00:08:12,260 --> 00:08:14,300 # JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: Toccata And Fugue In D Minor 91 00:08:21,180 --> 00:08:24,500 For instance, I'm working on a drawing of trees. 92 00:08:24,580 --> 00:08:28,140 The result strongly conveys the idea of a procession, 93 00:08:28,220 --> 00:08:31,460 a stately row of trees walking hither 94 00:08:31,540 --> 00:08:36,220 from far away across the hills and which, after climbing the last hill, 95 00:08:36,300 --> 00:08:40,460 suddenly stands before us, gigantic and threatening. 96 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:42,500 A beautiful idea. 97 00:08:42,560 --> 00:08:44,740 And it's there in the drawing 98 00:08:44,820 --> 00:08:47,660 but not nearly as strong as I feel it. 99 00:08:48,980 --> 00:08:51,940 I take comfort in the thought that a man will probably never be able 100 00:08:52,020 --> 00:08:56,220 to visualise an idea as strongly as he feels it himself. 101 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:04,580 (PLAYS TOCCATA AND FUGUE IN D MINOR) 102 00:09:30,220 --> 00:09:34,020 I like to draw here in the St Bavo in Haarlem. 103 00:09:35,060 --> 00:09:39,700 Being able to bathe in the organ's thundering abundance of sounds 104 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,620 gives me an overwhelming emotion. 105 00:09:46,660 --> 00:09:50,980 The stormy wind rushed through the pipes of the organ 106 00:09:51,060 --> 00:09:55,140 and a thunderous voice proclaimed the glory of God. 107 00:09:55,220 --> 00:09:59,940 Then a young man lay down on his back on the big cold stones. 108 00:10:03,580 --> 00:10:06,500 The thundering wind rushed through the pipes of the organ 109 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:08,420 until the pillars of the church 110 00:10:08,500 --> 00:10:11,140 could not bear the sound any more than he could. 111 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:13,180 (ORGAN CHORDS PLAY) 112 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:38,900 The organ grew a lot bigger, 113 00:10:38,980 --> 00:10:42,340 its pipes stretching from the heavens to the Earth. 114 00:10:42,420 --> 00:10:44,900 And the young man felt such a strong wind 115 00:10:44,980 --> 00:10:50,300 that he rose from the stones and flew into the air. 116 00:11:10,700 --> 00:11:15,100 And then I am admitted to hospital for observation. 117 00:11:17,940 --> 00:11:21,780 My gastroenterologist deems my situation hopeless 118 00:11:21,860 --> 00:11:24,540 and expects my complete and utter demise 119 00:11:24,620 --> 00:11:28,460 within a day or three, followed by a solemn funeral. 120 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:30,500 (THUNDER CRACKS) 121 00:11:31,540 --> 00:11:33,860 Or maybe that's putting it a bit too harsh. 122 00:11:33,940 --> 00:11:38,940 I have to regain my strength, set out on my journey. 123 00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:05,140 Without clouds, the sky is blue. 124 00:12:05,220 --> 00:12:07,580 That's something I've known for a long time. 125 00:12:07,660 --> 00:12:11,100 But the first time I saw the light blue of the sky 126 00:12:11,180 --> 00:12:16,140 above the hills of Tuscany, it was framed by dark cypresses. 127 00:12:18,980 --> 00:12:23,220 The blueness of the sky is incomprehensible to me. 128 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:27,300 As blue as... Yes, as what? 129 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:30,180 Bluer than the Mediterranean Sea. 130 00:12:30,260 --> 00:12:32,700 Bluer than the blue of the Dutch flag. 131 00:12:32,780 --> 00:12:37,620 Bluer than snow is white and pitch is black. 132 00:12:40,580 --> 00:12:45,820 I cannot describe the curious feeling this lovely beauty gives me. 133 00:12:45,900 --> 00:12:49,020 My poor eyes are staring and my poor brain 134 00:12:49,100 --> 00:12:53,580 is trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. 135 00:12:54,940 --> 00:12:57,860 Rarely, if ever, have I felt more calm, 136 00:12:57,940 --> 00:13:00,700 pleasant and comfortable than lately. 137 00:13:02,980 --> 00:13:07,140 Many wondrous prints spring from my industrious hands. 138 00:13:08,180 --> 00:13:12,300 I leave it to posterity to judge whether these contain beauty. 139 00:13:37,180 --> 00:13:42,180 I said woodcutting aside for a while to improve my drawing skills. 140 00:13:42,260 --> 00:13:47,020 I want to learn to look and see better whilst I am drawing. 141 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:49,900 I want to enjoy the tiniest details, 142 00:13:49,980 --> 00:13:53,020 such as a one-inch-diameter plant on a piece of rock. 143 00:13:54,460 --> 00:13:58,340 I want to try to draw these as accurately as possible. 144 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:04,220 With your nose right on top of it, 145 00:14:04,300 --> 00:14:08,460 you see all of its beauty and all of its simplicity. 146 00:14:08,540 --> 00:14:12,100 But when you start drawing, only then do you realise 147 00:14:12,180 --> 00:14:16,740 how terribly complicated and shapeless that beauty really is. 148 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:19,900 It is so terribly difficult. 149 00:14:19,980 --> 00:14:23,980 A small piece of rock, it's beautiful, 150 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:26,460 but there's nothing to hold on to. 151 00:14:26,540 --> 00:14:28,660 There is no form that can be captured. 152 00:14:28,740 --> 00:14:32,900 It simply goes on in all directions and you don't know where to begin 153 00:14:32,980 --> 00:14:36,540 and where to end. So nothing comes of it, of course. 154 00:14:37,580 --> 00:14:41,540 And I won't even start with all the beautiful little flowers. 155 00:14:41,620 --> 00:14:46,780 Colour is indispensable for that and I don't want to colour. 156 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:03,580 (GULLS CRY) 157 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:12,900 (BELLS RING) 158 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:21,060 (SPEAKS ITALIAN) 159 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:33,940 In the spring of 1923, 160 00:15:34,020 --> 00:15:37,300 I stay in Ravello, which is situated on a hill 161 00:15:37,380 --> 00:15:40,100 surrounded by the foaming and rippling waves 162 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:42,380 of the azure Old World sea. 163 00:15:44,240 --> 00:15:46,220 There, on a blissful afternoon, 164 00:15:46,300 --> 00:15:48,300 in the little hotel where I have settled in, 165 00:15:48,380 --> 00:15:51,660 three new guests joined me at my table. 166 00:15:52,860 --> 00:15:56,180 A gentleman, his wife and his daughter, 167 00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:59,100 Jetta Umiker, 24 years old. 168 00:16:00,580 --> 00:16:03,780 They've been expelled from Russia by the Bolsheviks, 169 00:16:03,860 --> 00:16:06,060 leaving behind all their possessions. 170 00:16:07,580 --> 00:16:11,940 Russia has left its mark on her, as much mentally as physically, 171 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:13,980 because she has suffered from hunger 172 00:16:14,060 --> 00:16:16,940 and seen too many people being murdered. 173 00:16:17,980 --> 00:16:22,340 She exerts an influence on me similar to that of an electromagnet 174 00:16:22,400 --> 00:16:25,140 on a scrappy piece of cast iron. 175 00:16:27,780 --> 00:16:30,180 Although I decided to keep my feelings hidden, 176 00:16:30,260 --> 00:16:33,220 her influence has finally become so powerful 177 00:16:33,300 --> 00:16:35,700 that, on the last day before her departure, 178 00:16:35,780 --> 00:16:40,380 the piece of cast iron loses its last remaining mental capabilities 179 00:16:40,460 --> 00:16:44,140 and slams into the magnet with a dull thud. 180 00:16:45,380 --> 00:16:49,980 While we are out on a walk together, I open up my heart to her. 181 00:17:04,980 --> 00:17:08,420 The prettiest and softest things you possess, 182 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:12,140 besides your heart, are your hands. 183 00:17:12,220 --> 00:17:17,420 They touch me, your long fingers, like those of a thief, 184 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:19,740 have stolen my heart. 185 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:22,060 Why have they chosen it? 186 00:17:30,940 --> 00:17:33,900 Yesterday afternoon, I escorted Jetta and her parents 187 00:17:33,980 --> 00:17:37,220 to the train station where she left for Switzerland. 188 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:39,500 I feel left behind here, 189 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:41,860 miserable and lonely. 190 00:17:49,540 --> 00:17:53,740 I can be alone the whole day because when I'm cutting wood, 191 00:17:53,820 --> 00:17:57,100 it sets my light, fantastical thoughts in motion. 192 00:17:59,260 --> 00:18:04,260 But in the evening, when my great longing for Jetta overwhelms me, 193 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:07,060 the loneliness becomes unbearable. 194 00:18:17,740 --> 00:18:20,340 Then I walk through the narrow streets 195 00:18:20,420 --> 00:18:23,700 and think of the ever-so-sad life she is leading... 196 00:18:24,860 --> 00:18:29,740 ..and of the possibility that I might make that life happier. 197 00:20:12,100 --> 00:20:13,780 I like to sketch in the evening in Rome, 198 00:20:13,860 --> 00:20:16,980 the wondrous, beautiful, nocturnal Rome 199 00:20:17,060 --> 00:20:21,300 that I love so much more than the same architecture during the day. 200 00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:23,340 (TRAFFIC NOISES) 201 00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:31,660 (BELL RINGS) 202 00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:37,420 All the excessive Baroque frills 203 00:20:37,500 --> 00:20:40,220 that Rome is filled with fade at night. 204 00:20:48,900 --> 00:20:52,900 Moreover, the modern indirect lighting with large floodlights 205 00:20:52,980 --> 00:20:55,700 helps to increase the fantastic effect. 206 00:20:57,300 --> 00:21:02,660 So, I draw every evening and finish the sketch on wood the next day. 207 00:21:02,720 --> 00:21:05,060 (BIRDS SING) 208 00:21:15,700 --> 00:21:20,620 I know no greater joy than to wander through valleys 209 00:21:20,700 --> 00:21:23,460 and over hills from village to village, 210 00:21:23,540 --> 00:21:27,100 to feel the artlessness of nature affect me 211 00:21:27,180 --> 00:21:30,460 and enjoy the unexpected and never thought of 212 00:21:30,540 --> 00:21:35,260 in the greatest possible contrast with everyday life at home. 213 00:21:44,060 --> 00:21:47,540 On my journeys, everything seems real. 214 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:49,980 But when you remember it later, 215 00:21:50,060 --> 00:21:52,620 you realise that it was like a dream. 216 00:21:57,940 --> 00:22:01,380 When I remember a sense, a feeling or a sound, 217 00:22:01,460 --> 00:22:04,980 the emotion sometimes becomes too strong for me. 218 00:23:28,980 --> 00:23:33,340 And then there is the delightful fact of knowingly abstaining 219 00:23:33,420 --> 00:23:36,540 from the comfort we are used to at home. 220 00:23:36,620 --> 00:23:40,780 Unpleasant things such as a bed not free of vermin 221 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:43,420 or food of lesser quality, 222 00:23:43,480 --> 00:23:46,060 even become part of the enjoyment. 223 00:23:47,380 --> 00:23:49,820 I often think of undertaking such journeys 224 00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:51,860 in the company of my sons one day. 225 00:23:51,940 --> 00:23:56,020 For children, it must be the greatest joy imaginable. 226 00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:03,860 (SPEAKS ITALIAN) 227 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:10,660 (CHEERING) 228 00:25:36,940 --> 00:25:39,660 That winter, we were in the Swiss mountains 229 00:25:39,740 --> 00:25:44,660 in that horrendous white, snowy misery I cannot stand. 230 00:25:44,740 --> 00:25:48,580 I hate that white shroud covering the earth. 231 00:25:53,860 --> 00:25:56,220 One night, when we'd just gone to bed, 232 00:25:56,300 --> 00:26:00,660 the sound Jetta's hair made while she was plaiting it in the dark, 233 00:26:00,740 --> 00:26:05,460 reminded me of the sound of a boat when it breasts a quiet sea. 234 00:26:08,700 --> 00:26:12,820 A great longing for the sea took control of me. 235 00:26:20,780 --> 00:26:24,180 Suddenly, I came up with the idea to write a letter 236 00:26:24,260 --> 00:26:26,540 to an Italian merchant shipping company 237 00:26:26,620 --> 00:26:30,780 that operated a service around Italy to Valencia in Spain. 238 00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:35,100 I proposed that Jetta and myself 239 00:26:35,180 --> 00:26:37,820 would come along as passengers for free. 240 00:26:38,860 --> 00:26:42,100 In return, I would make 12 prints for them 241 00:26:42,180 --> 00:26:44,460 based on sketches made during the journey 242 00:26:44,540 --> 00:26:47,340 in order to advertise their tourist transport. 243 00:26:53,260 --> 00:26:56,380 To my astonishment, after a few days, 244 00:26:56,440 --> 00:26:58,740 I received a letter of approval. 245 00:27:07,700 --> 00:27:11,540 I drew like a maniac, was perfectly pampered, 246 00:27:11,620 --> 00:27:15,620 one litre of wine a day and lived the life of a prince 247 00:27:15,700 --> 00:27:18,620 on this floating house that brought me to a new port 248 00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,340 every day without any lugging. 249 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:23,940 It was delightful. 250 00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:25,980 (GULLS CRY) 251 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:31,780 (HORN BLOWS) 252 00:27:40,500 --> 00:27:44,340 In Valencia, we disembarked for a three-week journey 253 00:27:44,420 --> 00:27:47,300 across southern Spain at our own expense. 254 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:31,220 In Granada, we visited the Alhambra. 255 00:28:31,300 --> 00:28:34,980 In this wonderful aristocratic work of art, 256 00:28:35,060 --> 00:28:39,060 we spent three days copying passionately. 257 00:28:39,140 --> 00:28:42,660 The palaces were full of visitors who formed a large audience 258 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,100 around us while we were drawing. 259 00:29:32,620 --> 00:29:36,060 What fascinates me in the tiles of the Alhambra 260 00:29:36,140 --> 00:29:39,780 is the discovery of a motif that repeats itself 261 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,460 according to a certain system. 262 00:30:01,380 --> 00:30:05,540 In Haarlem, I already enjoyed giving meaning 263 00:30:05,620 --> 00:30:08,780 to the entire surface of a piece of paper. 264 00:30:08,860 --> 00:30:12,140 By this I mean to say. that I don't want to draw the head of a person 265 00:30:12,220 --> 00:30:15,500 against the background of a room, for example. 266 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:18,740 No, besides the head, the background 267 00:30:18,820 --> 00:30:22,140 should have as much meaning as the head itself, 268 00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:24,460 thus becoming another head. 269 00:30:32,300 --> 00:30:35,500 It was a first attempt to systematise, 270 00:30:35,580 --> 00:30:39,140 although, at the time, I didn't really understand what I was doing. 271 00:30:40,980 --> 00:30:44,820 I was disheartened, so I abandoned this puzzle. 272 00:30:44,900 --> 00:30:48,820 I was completely inexperienced and no-one on earth could help. 273 00:31:01,300 --> 00:31:07,020 The wall and floor mosaics at the Alhambra stem from the same thought, 274 00:31:07,100 --> 00:31:10,900 albeit, the Moors only use geometric figures. 275 00:31:39,820 --> 00:31:43,740 What a pity the Moors didn't use figures derived from nature, 276 00:31:43,820 --> 00:31:48,340 such as building blocks, fish, birds, reptiles or humans. 277 00:31:48,420 --> 00:31:52,460 Recognisability is so important to me 278 00:31:52,540 --> 00:31:55,060 that I've never been able to do without it. 279 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:47,300 (BELL RINGS) 280 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:32,140 (CHATTER) 281 00:33:38,180 --> 00:33:43,020 I had left Italy, I lost the Italian landscape and architecture 282 00:33:43,100 --> 00:33:46,020 and something else had to take its place. 283 00:33:46,100 --> 00:33:50,220 This stimulated the formation of inner images. 284 00:33:50,300 --> 00:33:53,620 I started working with passion when I discovered 285 00:33:53,700 --> 00:33:56,860 that I had things of my own that had to come out, 286 00:33:56,940 --> 00:34:00,780 that I could express something others don't have. 287 00:34:04,780 --> 00:34:08,940 I am 40, the age at which most people are at their best. 288 00:34:10,740 --> 00:34:14,540 For me, this is the richest of times. 289 00:34:59,540 --> 00:35:03,860 I showed my brother, a geologist, some tessellation motifs. 290 00:35:06,260 --> 00:35:10,460 He was interested in my motifs from a more scientific point of view 291 00:35:10,540 --> 00:35:13,300 and told me that I was unknowingly applying 292 00:35:13,380 --> 00:35:16,540 a kind of two-dimensional crystallography. 293 00:35:27,700 --> 00:35:30,860 He advised me to read up on it but most of the articles 294 00:35:30,940 --> 00:35:34,700 were far too difficult, dry and theoretical for me. 295 00:35:34,780 --> 00:35:38,340 Still, my understanding became clearer and I began to see 296 00:35:38,420 --> 00:35:43,100 the possibilities offered by the regular division of the plane. 297 00:35:43,180 --> 00:35:47,020 For the first time, I dared to create compositions 298 00:35:47,100 --> 00:35:50,420 based on the problem of expressing endlessness 299 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,060 within a limited plane. 300 00:36:00,540 --> 00:36:03,860 An endless series of three-dimensional men 301 00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:06,260 is rushing down the stairs. 302 00:36:06,340 --> 00:36:10,300 Gradually, they lose their plasticity as they freeze, 303 00:36:10,380 --> 00:36:15,700 flatten and turn into the motif of a regularly organised tessellation. 304 00:36:18,260 --> 00:36:23,980 The motif simplifies upwards towards its original form, the diamond. 305 00:36:24,060 --> 00:36:27,780 Three diamonds in white, grey and black, 306 00:36:27,860 --> 00:36:32,260 together form a cube and thus regain their plasticity. 307 00:36:32,340 --> 00:36:35,700 The cube turns into a block, a house 308 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:39,020 and from the house, a human product. 309 00:36:39,100 --> 00:36:43,860 The people reappear to endlessly repeat their cycle. 310 00:36:43,940 --> 00:36:47,340 The familiar tiled-floor motif on the terraces 311 00:36:47,420 --> 00:36:51,380 is the same original motif again, the diamond, 312 00:36:51,460 --> 00:36:53,980 the link between two and three dimensions. 313 00:36:54,060 --> 00:36:58,180 the idea upon which the entire composition is built. 314 00:36:58,260 --> 00:37:02,060 The landscape behind the houses is intended 315 00:37:02,140 --> 00:37:05,820 as a maximum of naturalness, in contrast 316 00:37:05,900 --> 00:37:09,580 to the mathematical tessellation at the bottom of the print. 317 00:37:17,460 --> 00:37:22,300 The print Day And Night is a similar kind of cycle. 318 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:24,340 (SQUAWKING) 319 00:37:58,460 --> 00:38:01,140 The judgement of acquaintances and friends 320 00:38:01,220 --> 00:38:04,060 makes me feel that this is strange to them 321 00:38:04,140 --> 00:38:06,220 and they don't know what to think of it. 322 00:38:06,300 --> 00:38:09,660 The reception is not conducive to the enthusiasm 323 00:38:09,740 --> 00:38:12,300 with which I am painstakingly tinkering 324 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:14,340 and searching in this direction. 325 00:38:14,420 --> 00:38:17,740 I fear that other prints will be a disappointment as well 326 00:38:17,820 --> 00:38:21,980 because, in those, I deviate even more so than in Day And Night 327 00:38:22,060 --> 00:38:25,660 from a desire for aesthetic satisfaction. 328 00:38:25,740 --> 00:38:28,780 The mathematical interest is becoming so dominant 329 00:38:28,860 --> 00:38:32,620 that I am wondering whether it is still trying to be art 330 00:38:32,700 --> 00:38:36,180 and whether it even belongs at an art exhibition. 331 00:38:47,740 --> 00:38:50,860 As a little boy lying in bed at night, 332 00:38:50,940 --> 00:38:54,260 I would enjoy playing with associative thoughts. 333 00:38:54,340 --> 00:38:58,660 For example, I would say, how can I find the logical connection 334 00:38:58,740 --> 00:39:02,460 between the letter S and the tail of my dog? 335 00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:04,740 A thousand ways to get there. 336 00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:07,620 For example. S - sky, 337 00:39:07,680 --> 00:39:10,620 birds, nest, branch, tree, 338 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,580 garden, dog, tail. 339 00:39:16,140 --> 00:39:19,500 I've played a lot of these games and actually I haven't got much further. 340 00:39:19,580 --> 00:39:21,540 (BUZZING) I've merely found a way 341 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:24,140 to express these thoughts visually. 342 00:39:25,180 --> 00:39:29,580 The regular hexagon, honeycomb, bee. 343 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:39,780 A new factor has been added to this, 344 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,380 a direct association of shape. 345 00:39:43,700 --> 00:39:47,300 A fish whose background turns into a bird. 346 00:39:52,340 --> 00:39:56,260 So, it's a mishmash that lacks all profoundness. 347 00:39:56,340 --> 00:39:59,700 It is and remains the game of a child... 348 00:40:00,740 --> 00:40:04,740 ..and sensible people are welcome to consider it trivial. 349 00:40:06,180 --> 00:40:09,780 The best way for me to express my association mania 350 00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,500 would be in an animated film. 351 00:40:12,580 --> 00:40:16,740 In the future, the animated film will become an artistic expression 352 00:40:16,820 --> 00:40:20,100 of great value, showing more important thoughts 353 00:40:20,160 --> 00:40:22,860 than Snow White or Mickey, 354 00:40:22,940 --> 00:40:25,820 although I have no contempt for these products at all, 355 00:40:25,900 --> 00:40:29,380 on the contrary, admiration for Disney's talent. 356 00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:31,420 (BELL RINGS / CHATTER) 357 00:40:33,900 --> 00:40:37,940 I often dream of the film I would like to make, 358 00:40:38,020 --> 00:40:41,820 the astonishing metamorphoses you would see then. 359 00:40:47,380 --> 00:40:50,340 Sadly, there would be no audience for it, 360 00:40:50,420 --> 00:40:54,500 as I would most certainly bore people to death with it. 361 00:41:29,710 --> 00:41:33,430 Since the complete exclusion of the Jews, 362 00:41:33,510 --> 00:41:36,990 I feel increasingly uncomfortable when I exhibit my work. 363 00:41:37,050 --> 00:41:39,150 It feels like I'm profiteering. 364 00:41:40,510 --> 00:41:43,310 And, if I'm not mistaken, all visual artists 365 00:41:43,390 --> 00:41:46,670 will be forced to join the Chamber of Culture. 366 00:41:46,750 --> 00:41:49,230 Otherwise, they will not be able to exhibit their work. 367 00:41:53,790 --> 00:41:57,430 I've cancelled my membership of the artists society, Pulchri, 368 00:41:57,490 --> 00:42:00,430 and the graphic association myself. 369 00:42:00,490 --> 00:42:02,310 I think that will be clear enough. 370 00:42:16,770 --> 00:42:19,110 Here in Baarn, 371 00:42:19,190 --> 00:42:22,550 I hardly know anyone and I don't know a lot of colleagues either. 372 00:42:22,630 --> 00:42:26,070 No matter how satisfied I am with the isolation 373 00:42:26,150 --> 00:42:28,750 in which we live here, at this moment, 374 00:42:28,830 --> 00:42:32,070 I would like to have a bit more human contact. 375 00:42:38,790 --> 00:42:41,830 I have developed the tessellation pattern 376 00:42:41,910 --> 00:42:45,310 of white optimists and black pessimists 377 00:42:45,370 --> 00:42:47,710 into a complete morality tale. 378 00:42:47,790 --> 00:42:51,070 One white and one black representative of each type 379 00:42:51,150 --> 00:42:55,430 free themselves from the grey surface of the back wall 380 00:42:55,490 --> 00:42:57,790 and walk into space. 381 00:42:57,870 --> 00:43:01,030 They avoid tumbling into the round hole in the middle, 382 00:43:01,110 --> 00:43:04,270 so they're bound to meet each other in the foreground. 383 00:43:04,350 --> 00:43:08,390 The black pessimist continues to raise his warning finger 384 00:43:08,470 --> 00:43:11,470 until the end but the white optimist cheerfully 385 00:43:11,550 --> 00:43:15,710 comes to his encounter and they end up shaking hands. 386 00:43:23,650 --> 00:43:26,750 I had many Jewish friends. 387 00:43:26,830 --> 00:43:31,270 My old teacher, de Mesquita, he refused to go into hiding. 388 00:43:36,650 --> 00:43:39,750 One night, they were all taken away. 389 00:43:39,830 --> 00:43:43,950 In '44, during the hunger winter, the neighbours said, 390 00:43:44,030 --> 00:43:47,750 "Haven't you heard? The Mesquitas have been taken away." 391 00:43:51,530 --> 00:43:53,750 I entered their home. 392 00:43:53,830 --> 00:43:57,510 This print was lying on the floor with the nail prints 393 00:43:57,570 --> 00:43:59,590 of the German boots on it. 394 00:43:59,670 --> 00:44:02,950 And in his studio, everything was turned upside down. 395 00:44:03,010 --> 00:44:05,590 I took home 200 prints. 396 00:44:05,650 --> 00:44:08,150 These things cannot be forgotten, 397 00:44:08,230 --> 00:44:11,230 taken away in the middle of the night. 398 00:44:11,310 --> 00:44:14,910 And every now and then, the image looms up before me 399 00:44:14,970 --> 00:44:16,950 like a nightmare. 400 00:44:18,310 --> 00:44:22,510 When, in the night, escaped from the narcosis of sleep, 401 00:44:22,590 --> 00:44:28,190 my opened eyes stare into unfathomable depths of darkness. 402 00:44:28,270 --> 00:44:34,390 The birds of despair come flying on slow wings. 403 00:45:24,530 --> 00:45:26,910 We had a single rickety bike 404 00:45:26,990 --> 00:45:30,390 with makeshift tyres which I rode to Overijssel 405 00:45:30,470 --> 00:45:34,070 through the bitter cold wind and rain. 406 00:45:34,130 --> 00:45:36,910 Those journeys upset me very much. 407 00:45:36,990 --> 00:45:39,830 I saw such an awful lot of suffering. 408 00:45:39,890 --> 00:45:41,910 I'll never forget it. 409 00:45:41,990 --> 00:45:44,870 But I could keep our family on its feet. 410 00:45:44,950 --> 00:45:48,350 Even though my wife is now in bad shape. 411 00:45:50,190 --> 00:45:53,670 However, I wasn't able to get any work done 412 00:45:53,750 --> 00:45:57,590 and that was the bitterest pill I had to swallow. 413 00:46:00,210 --> 00:46:02,630 (CHEERING) 414 00:46:03,890 --> 00:46:05,790 (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS) 415 00:46:05,870 --> 00:46:08,950 After the war, I retired to my studio. 416 00:46:09,030 --> 00:46:11,910 My sons now take care of the food supply. 417 00:46:11,990 --> 00:46:16,230 My wife is too weak to do much herself besides cooking. 418 00:46:16,290 --> 00:46:18,270 (JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS) 419 00:46:59,650 --> 00:47:02,710 Finally, I am working again. 420 00:47:02,790 --> 00:47:05,710 It takes more effort than ever before. 421 00:47:05,790 --> 00:47:08,590 My brain seems to be completely dazed 422 00:47:08,670 --> 00:47:11,190 but at least I'm doing something again. 423 00:47:33,310 --> 00:47:37,190 Originally, the intention of The Eye was nothing more 424 00:47:37,270 --> 00:47:40,030 than a general interest in the human eye. 425 00:47:40,110 --> 00:47:43,310 But since the viewer always sees himself 426 00:47:43,390 --> 00:47:46,110 reflected in the eye he is looking at, 427 00:47:46,190 --> 00:47:48,830 I thought I would show the reflection of a skull 428 00:47:48,910 --> 00:47:52,470 as a variant of the prints with mirroring spheres, 429 00:47:52,550 --> 00:47:55,390 because we are all, whether we want it or not, 430 00:47:55,450 --> 00:47:57,510 looking at death 431 00:47:57,570 --> 00:48:00,790 and he is looking back at us. 432 00:48:31,270 --> 00:48:36,310 God Almighty, I wish I would learn to draw a little better. 433 00:48:36,390 --> 00:48:41,230 What exertion and determination it takes to try and do it well. 434 00:48:41,310 --> 00:48:45,110 Every now and then. I'm close a delirium from pure nerves. 435 00:48:46,230 --> 00:48:48,870 It's really only a matter of dogged persistence 436 00:48:48,950 --> 00:48:53,430 with continuous pitiless self-criticism. 437 00:48:53,510 --> 00:48:58,350 Talent, and such, is actually just hogwash, for the most part. 438 00:49:05,270 --> 00:49:07,910 Any schoolboy with a little aptitude 439 00:49:07,990 --> 00:49:11,310 will perhaps be better at drawing than I am. 440 00:49:13,510 --> 00:49:18,270 But what he most often lacks is the tough yearning for realisation, 441 00:49:18,330 --> 00:49:21,070 the teeth-grinding stubbornness 442 00:49:21,150 --> 00:49:25,470 and saying, "Even though I know I cannot do it, 443 00:49:25,530 --> 00:49:28,430 "I want to do it anyway." 444 00:50:01,910 --> 00:50:06,470 The Puddle is uncharacteristically impressionistic for me 445 00:50:06,550 --> 00:50:09,990 but the symbol is so strong and striking in itself 446 00:50:10,070 --> 00:50:12,470 and every time it is such a consolation 447 00:50:12,530 --> 00:50:15,550 to see the sky in the puddle again 448 00:50:15,630 --> 00:50:18,990 that it did not come to my mind to change anything in the image 449 00:50:19,070 --> 00:50:21,950 as it occurs on a forest or country road. 450 00:50:22,030 --> 00:50:25,670 It was not my intention to draw a particular puddle 451 00:50:25,750 --> 00:50:29,550 on a particular country road but the puddle that can be found 452 00:50:29,610 --> 00:50:32,310 anywhere all over the world. 453 00:51:41,250 --> 00:51:43,230 This creature, 454 00:51:43,310 --> 00:51:47,870 Pedalternorotandomovens centroculatus articulosus, 455 00:51:47,930 --> 00:51:50,350 popularly known as Curl-up, 456 00:51:50,410 --> 00:51:52,630 was born out of dissatisfaction. 457 00:51:53,670 --> 00:51:56,270 The idea came to me when I was riding my bicycle. 458 00:51:57,350 --> 00:52:02,270 I thought, "How absurd. I am rolling over the ground on wheels, 459 00:52:02,330 --> 00:52:04,790 "which is much easier than on foot." 460 00:52:04,870 --> 00:52:08,550 God has forgotten to create the wheel 461 00:52:08,630 --> 00:52:12,470 and he has also forgotten to create animals that can use their bodies 462 00:52:12,550 --> 00:52:15,950 as a wheel or hoop to move themselves forward. 463 00:52:16,030 --> 00:52:20,630 I am meeting this need with the design of this Curl-up. 464 00:52:20,710 --> 00:52:22,990 Biological details are not yet known. 465 00:52:23,070 --> 00:52:26,790 Nothing could be said with certainty about its reproduction. 466 00:53:14,070 --> 00:53:18,590 Three surfaces of the Earth intersect at a right angle 467 00:53:18,650 --> 00:53:21,070 and people live on each of them. 468 00:53:21,150 --> 00:53:24,990 Two inhabitants of different worlds cannot live on the same floor 469 00:53:25,070 --> 00:53:27,750 as their notion of what is horizontal and vertical 470 00:53:27,830 --> 00:53:31,630 is not the same. However, they can use the same staircase 471 00:53:31,710 --> 00:53:36,070 but with one person ascending and the other descending. 472 00:53:36,150 --> 00:53:39,550 Contact between the two is impossible, 473 00:53:39,630 --> 00:53:42,150 for they live in different worlds and therefore 474 00:53:42,230 --> 00:53:45,470 cannot have any knowledge of each other's existence. 475 00:55:25,630 --> 00:55:28,310 Like a madman, I have thrown myself 476 00:55:28,390 --> 00:55:31,110 into the printing of old engravings again. 477 00:55:31,190 --> 00:55:34,830 That damn job simply has to be done periodically. 478 00:55:34,910 --> 00:55:38,190 Half dazed by continuous radio sounds, 479 00:55:38,270 --> 00:55:42,230 I'm ploughing my way through this pile of printing ink. 480 00:55:42,310 --> 00:55:44,270 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: Cello Suite No.1 in G 481 00:55:58,290 --> 00:56:01,670 I am smitten by Bach's music, 482 00:56:01,750 --> 00:56:05,950 a short motif that repeats itself in various ways, 483 00:56:06,030 --> 00:56:10,390 identically in a different key back to front or upside down. 484 00:56:10,470 --> 00:56:13,350 They are almost mathematical figures. 485 00:56:13,430 --> 00:56:16,190 It has a lot in common with my motifs, 486 00:56:16,270 --> 00:56:18,870 which also repeat themselves endlessly. 487 00:56:21,230 --> 00:56:23,670 In both, there is a compelling rhythm, 488 00:56:23,750 --> 00:56:27,430 a cadence in search of a certain endlessness. 489 00:56:31,510 --> 00:56:35,270 This feeling of kinship is so strong that I often get inspired 490 00:56:35,350 --> 00:56:40,230 when I'm listening to Bach. There is an undeniable connection. 491 00:57:00,050 --> 00:57:04,290 I attended a performance of the St Matthew Passion in Naarden. 492 00:57:05,330 --> 00:57:09,210 My eyes wandered past the walls, columns, arches 493 00:57:09,290 --> 00:57:13,250 and vaults of that high, wide, immovable church. 494 00:57:16,810 --> 00:57:18,770 # JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: St Matthew Passion 495 00:57:29,530 --> 00:57:34,530 Immovable? Suddenly, it became clear to me that this church 496 00:57:34,590 --> 00:57:37,290 was far from immovable. 497 00:57:37,370 --> 00:57:41,210 My imagination enlivened by the constant stream 498 00:57:41,270 --> 00:57:43,890 of beautiful sounds that came to us, 499 00:57:43,970 --> 00:57:48,330 saw the globe with the Naarden Church on it 500 00:57:48,390 --> 00:57:50,890 rotating in the universe. 501 00:57:50,950 --> 00:57:53,890 First, I saw the old Naarden fort 502 00:57:53,950 --> 00:57:56,730 as a more-than-five-armed starfish. 503 00:57:59,850 --> 00:58:03,370 Then I flew to the coast, crossed the Channel and, before long, 504 00:58:03,450 --> 00:58:07,690 I found myself above the grey, turbulent Atlantic Ocean. 505 00:58:16,570 --> 00:58:21,090 At the latitude of New York, I reached the American mainland. 506 00:58:21,170 --> 00:58:23,530 And fortunately so, because it was gloomy, 507 00:58:23,590 --> 00:58:26,170 cold and rough above the ocean. 508 00:58:32,410 --> 00:58:36,890 I cannot give a clear description of the sight of the United States 509 00:58:36,970 --> 00:58:39,210 but I do know that it was cheerful and bright there 510 00:58:39,290 --> 00:58:42,970 with lots of sun on snow-capped mountains. 511 00:58:45,730 --> 00:58:49,770 Near San Francisco, I ended up above the ocean again. 512 00:58:51,550 --> 00:58:54,130 I saw Honolulu from afar. 513 00:58:54,210 --> 00:58:56,570 Then a whole lot of cheerful water again. 514 00:58:56,650 --> 00:59:00,090 And finally, straight across the dense, humid jungles 515 00:59:00,170 --> 00:59:03,690 of New Guinea, Celebes and the Borneo coast. 516 00:59:18,290 --> 00:59:21,650 How I came back again and I do not know. 517 00:59:21,730 --> 00:59:27,290 The fact is that I suddenly found myself sitting on my kitchen chair 518 00:59:27,350 --> 00:59:29,570 in the Naarden Church again. 519 00:59:29,650 --> 00:59:32,570 Just when they were singing at the top of their voices, 520 00:59:32,630 --> 00:59:35,850 we sit down in tears, 521 00:59:35,930 --> 00:59:41,450 completely malapropos, as I felt surprisingly cheerful and satisfied. 522 01:00:10,290 --> 01:00:13,690 Meanwhile, I have finished a new lithograph. 523 01:00:13,750 --> 01:00:15,770 I believe I have never made anything 524 01:00:15,830 --> 01:00:18,650 as strange as this one in my life. 525 01:00:20,490 --> 01:00:23,530 Among other things, it depicts a young man 526 01:00:23,610 --> 01:00:27,010 attentively looking at a print on the wall of an exhibition, 527 01:00:27,070 --> 01:00:29,730 which is a picture of himself. 528 01:00:29,790 --> 01:00:31,770 How can this be? 529 01:00:31,850 --> 01:00:37,130 Maybe I am not so far removed from Einstein's curved universe. 530 01:01:11,630 --> 01:01:13,770 I've made an effort to explain 531 01:01:13,850 --> 01:01:16,570 the smaller and smaller print to visitors 532 01:01:16,650 --> 01:01:19,890 but it's becoming increasingly clear that people are insensitive 533 01:01:19,970 --> 01:01:24,690 to the beauty of this infinite world within a defined plane. 534 01:01:24,770 --> 01:01:27,530 Most people simply don't understand what it's about. 535 01:01:27,610 --> 01:01:31,130 This is even more sad to me because I'm working on the next version, 536 01:01:31,210 --> 01:01:33,730 which is meant to far exceed the first. 537 01:01:33,810 --> 01:01:37,730 Although, in theory, the infinitely small in size 538 01:01:37,810 --> 01:01:41,890 and infinitely large in number is reached in the centre, 539 01:01:41,950 --> 01:01:44,170 this work only partially satisfies. 540 01:01:44,250 --> 01:01:47,170 It remains a fragment because outwards 541 01:01:47,230 --> 01:01:49,730 the pattern is arbitrarily limited. 542 01:01:49,810 --> 01:01:53,170 However, my great enthusiasm for these kinds of depictions 543 01:01:53,230 --> 01:01:55,770 and my fixation on my investigations 544 01:01:55,850 --> 01:02:00,890 might eventually lead me to a satisfying discovery. 545 01:02:09,090 --> 01:02:12,930 I found an image by the Canadian mathematician Coxeter 546 01:02:12,990 --> 01:02:14,970 that will probably help me. 547 01:02:15,050 --> 01:02:18,570 One way to bring infinity to finite terms 548 01:02:18,650 --> 01:02:21,450 is by the transformation called inversion, 549 01:02:21,510 --> 01:02:24,410 so that it is on the same diameter. 550 01:02:24,490 --> 01:02:28,410 But the hocus-pocus of his words are no good to me. 551 01:02:28,490 --> 01:02:31,570 No matter how much effort it takes, it's all the more fulfilling 552 01:02:31,650 --> 01:02:34,610 for me to solve such a problem myself 553 01:02:34,670 --> 01:02:37,090 in my own clumsy way. 554 01:02:37,170 --> 01:02:39,530 GUSTAV HOLST: The Planets - Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity 555 01:02:41,890 --> 01:02:47,130 A circular regular tessellation logically bounded on all sides 556 01:02:47,210 --> 01:02:51,970 by the infinitesimal is a thing of miraculous beauty. 557 01:03:35,390 --> 01:03:38,210 This is the limit. 558 01:03:38,270 --> 01:03:41,170 The entire world is contained in it. 559 01:03:41,250 --> 01:03:45,650 It is a successful attempt at visualising infinity 560 01:03:45,730 --> 01:03:48,650 and it represents a milestone in my development. 561 01:03:49,770 --> 01:03:53,970 Deeply saddening and hangover-inducing remains the fact 562 01:03:54,050 --> 01:03:56,890 that I'm starting to speak a language that is understood 563 01:03:56,950 --> 01:03:58,930 by very few people. 564 01:03:59,950 --> 01:04:02,810 This only increases my loneliness. 565 01:04:02,890 --> 01:04:06,770 After all, I do not belong anywhere any more. 566 01:04:06,850 --> 01:04:09,810 I'm too stupid to live as a scientist. 567 01:04:09,870 --> 01:04:12,090 I'm not an artist either. 568 01:04:12,150 --> 01:04:16,090 I hover between mathematics and art. 569 01:04:19,330 --> 01:04:23,290 I'm working on the design of a new print with a staircase 570 01:04:23,370 --> 01:04:26,850 that keeps ascending, or descending, if you will. 571 01:04:29,830 --> 01:04:32,490 It is a closed ring-shaped thing 572 01:04:32,550 --> 01:04:34,850 and yet the perspective is correct. 573 01:04:40,250 --> 01:04:43,210 There's a great number of human figures walking on it 574 01:04:43,290 --> 01:04:47,290 in two directions. One line is arduously 575 01:04:47,370 --> 01:04:50,450 climbing up to infinity, while the other 576 01:04:50,510 --> 01:04:52,850 endlessly descends. 577 01:04:55,090 --> 01:04:58,250 A sad, pessimistic subject this staircase. 578 01:04:58,310 --> 01:05:01,050 But very profound and absurd. 579 01:05:03,210 --> 01:05:06,370 People do not like to talk about their descents 580 01:05:06,430 --> 01:05:10,530 and all the more about their climbs. 581 01:05:10,590 --> 01:05:12,570 (HORN BLOWS) 582 01:05:15,970 --> 01:05:19,250 I have been officially invited to give a lecture 583 01:05:19,330 --> 01:05:24,050 and exhibit my work at a conference for crystallographers in America. 584 01:05:24,110 --> 01:05:26,130 Fine kettle of fish. 585 01:05:26,210 --> 01:05:28,890 I didn't know anything about crystallography 586 01:05:28,970 --> 01:05:34,250 in a scientific sense but apparently they are revelling in my fantasies. 587 01:05:34,310 --> 01:05:36,530 Well, I guess I should go then. 588 01:05:42,290 --> 01:05:47,010 No better means of transport and no better lodging than a cargo boat, 589 01:05:47,070 --> 01:05:49,090 if you want some peace and quiet. 590 01:05:50,970 --> 01:05:54,610 Four weeks, no need to assume any responsibilities. 591 01:05:54,690 --> 01:05:57,290 Put of reach of the telephone and letters, 592 01:05:57,370 --> 01:06:01,090 no longer having to read the newspapers or hear the news reports. 593 01:06:01,170 --> 01:06:04,690 As a result, you acquire a receptivity 594 01:06:04,770 --> 01:06:08,090 that allows you to really wonder again. 595 01:06:11,650 --> 01:06:15,010 You feel disconnected, not only from worries, 596 01:06:15,090 --> 01:06:18,130 but also from the firmness of the Earth's crust. 597 01:06:19,690 --> 01:06:23,890 Then you start to observe that infinite variation 598 01:06:23,970 --> 01:06:27,570 of waves and undulations and you see the living creatures 599 01:06:27,650 --> 01:06:31,610 in and above the sea, the fish and the birds. 600 01:06:31,690 --> 01:06:36,450 And you finally look at the celestial heavenly bodies again. 601 01:06:36,510 --> 01:06:39,370 The sun, the moon 602 01:06:39,430 --> 01:06:41,490 and the stars. 603 01:06:54,270 --> 01:06:56,250 In the sultry night, 604 01:06:56,330 --> 01:06:59,770 you can lie stretched out on your back on a tarpaulin 605 01:06:59,850 --> 01:07:02,850 and if you bring a flashlight and a star chart, 606 01:07:02,930 --> 01:07:06,250 you can easily commit the eternal figures of the constellations 607 01:07:06,330 --> 01:07:09,210 to memory and call them by their names. 608 01:07:16,650 --> 01:07:19,450 And the moon, while she was looking down on me 609 01:07:19,510 --> 01:07:21,970 like a big lamp high above the sea, 610 01:07:22,050 --> 01:07:26,850 I was so amazed at the distance between her and me. 611 01:07:33,090 --> 01:07:37,330 Breathless with wonder, I was subjected to her silence, 612 01:07:37,410 --> 01:07:42,250 her apparent immobility, her motionless balance in space. 613 01:07:47,090 --> 01:07:52,290 She became a symbol to me, or rather a demonstration of gravity, 614 01:07:52,350 --> 01:07:54,330 which is not a boring concept 615 01:07:54,410 --> 01:07:58,730 but a living, gripping incomprehensibility. 616 01:09:46,590 --> 01:09:48,930 At home, I am working feverishly 617 01:09:49,010 --> 01:09:53,090 but I'm constantly disturbed by the many foreigners at our door 618 01:09:53,170 --> 01:09:55,810 and the growing amount of correspondence. 619 01:10:00,650 --> 01:10:05,050 Mr Mick Jagger asking me to design a picture 620 01:10:05,130 --> 01:10:08,890 or two place at his disposal unpublished work 621 01:10:08,970 --> 01:10:13,650 to reproduce on the cover sleeve for an LP record. 622 01:10:15,170 --> 01:10:18,690 My answer to both questions must be no 623 01:10:18,770 --> 01:10:21,810 as I want to devote all my time and attention 624 01:10:21,870 --> 01:10:24,410 to the many commitments I made. 625 01:10:26,430 --> 01:10:30,530 By the way, please tell Mr Jagger 626 01:10:30,590 --> 01:10:33,650 I am not Maurits to him 627 01:10:33,710 --> 01:10:38,370 but, very sincerely, MC Escher. 628 01:10:38,430 --> 01:10:40,410 (ROCK MUSIC PLAYS) 629 01:10:53,370 --> 01:10:58,370 These orgies of colour were clandestinely printed in California. 630 01:10:58,430 --> 01:11:01,010 I got hold of the horrendous results 631 01:11:01,090 --> 01:11:03,890 through the mediation of a friendly customer. 632 01:11:03,970 --> 01:11:07,290 The bright colours are entirely at the expense of the publisher, 633 01:11:07,370 --> 01:11:11,770 who is undoubtedly speculating on the taste of today's youth. 634 01:11:17,690 --> 01:11:20,250 They were printed with fluorescent ink 635 01:11:20,330 --> 01:11:23,810 and will really come to life in ultraviolet light. 636 01:11:23,890 --> 01:11:27,690 I only know this from hearsay because I have never verified it. 637 01:11:27,750 --> 01:11:29,730 (INDISTINCT LYRICS) 638 01:11:41,010 --> 01:11:45,290 Palm, from 1933, never had a lot of success 639 01:11:45,370 --> 01:11:48,890 but was recently elevated to the dignity of a poster 640 01:11:48,970 --> 01:11:52,370 in colours so shrill they hurt your eyes. 641 01:11:55,370 --> 01:12:00,250 What on earth does this young generation see in my work? 642 01:12:00,330 --> 01:12:04,170 Doesn't it lack all the qualities that are hip these days? 643 01:12:04,250 --> 01:12:08,690 It is cerebral and rationalised instead of wild and sexy. 644 01:12:08,770 --> 01:12:13,130 And how can they reconcile with their addiction to narcotics? 645 01:12:18,610 --> 01:12:22,050 But why not let those Californian students and hippies 646 01:12:22,130 --> 01:12:25,330 buy a colour poster for a small amount of money? 647 01:12:25,410 --> 01:12:28,170 My prints are not only much too expensive, 648 01:12:28,250 --> 01:12:32,770 they are also too sober in tone for the taste of many modern youths 649 01:12:32,850 --> 01:12:36,090 who are usually as fond of the screaming colours on their walls 650 01:12:36,170 --> 01:12:40,330 as they are of the screaming coming out of their record players. 651 01:12:42,470 --> 01:12:44,210 # The sunset in your eyes 652 01:12:45,650 --> 01:12:49,570 # Travelling on the train through clear Moroccan skies 653 01:12:49,630 --> 01:12:51,970 # Ducks and pigs and chickens call 654 01:12:52,030 --> 01:12:54,290 # Animal carpet wall-to-wall 655 01:12:54,370 --> 01:12:57,490 # American ladies five-foot tall in blue 656 01:12:59,890 --> 01:13:03,290 # Sweeping cobwebs from the edges of my mind. # 657 01:13:03,370 --> 01:13:06,370 I've always tried to be an observant person. 658 01:13:06,450 --> 01:13:10,450 I've always tried to remain open all around. 659 01:13:10,530 --> 01:13:14,450 I... I... I'm constantly seeing things, you know. 660 01:13:14,530 --> 01:13:18,250 But Escher's work made me see differently. 661 01:13:18,330 --> 01:13:22,610 One of the things about Escher's work is that 662 01:13:22,670 --> 01:13:25,810 it bears studying. 663 01:13:25,890 --> 01:13:29,810 You know, you have an overall appreciation of the piece 664 01:13:29,890 --> 01:13:34,250 but when you get deep into the piece and see what's going on, 665 01:13:34,310 --> 01:13:36,730 it becomes even more miraculous. 666 01:13:36,810 --> 01:13:39,250 So, Escher taught me to see differently 667 01:13:39,310 --> 01:13:41,330 and I'm very thankful for that. 668 01:13:44,930 --> 01:13:50,210 I think one of the last pieces I ever saw of Escher's was Snakes. 669 01:13:50,290 --> 01:13:53,330 I think that may have been one of the last pieces that he did. 670 01:13:54,370 --> 01:13:57,010 And he was not a young man when he finished that 671 01:13:57,070 --> 01:13:59,330 and that is stunning. 672 01:13:59,390 --> 01:14:02,130 I am handicapped by my health, 673 01:14:02,190 --> 01:14:04,330 it takes a lot of time every day. 674 01:14:04,410 --> 01:14:07,610 In the meantime, I try to reprint woodcuts. 675 01:14:07,690 --> 01:14:12,570 I do not feel free enough from worry to start working on new ideas 676 01:14:12,650 --> 01:14:15,410 and I'm content with that old metier. 677 01:14:15,470 --> 01:14:17,450 It calms the soul. 678 01:14:22,130 --> 01:14:25,810 Doing this work gives me the sad feeling of getting old 679 01:14:25,890 --> 01:14:30,370 because who would spend his time chewing and mulling over things 680 01:14:30,430 --> 01:14:32,690 he made years and years ago? 681 01:14:34,150 --> 01:14:36,290 It is not a creative activity 682 01:14:36,370 --> 01:14:40,010 but really a process of going over old ground. 683 01:14:49,270 --> 01:14:51,610 A prerequisite for a good print 684 01:14:51,690 --> 01:14:54,810 and, by good, I mean a print that resonates 685 01:14:54,870 --> 01:14:57,050 with a relatively large audience, 686 01:14:57,130 --> 01:15:01,090 is that no hocus-pocus is practised without a very sound 687 01:15:01,170 --> 01:15:04,090 and effortless connection with reality. 688 01:15:05,170 --> 01:15:09,570 What I can say is that no print ever succeeds. 689 01:15:09,650 --> 01:15:14,410 They all fail simply because I always pursue a vision 690 01:15:14,470 --> 01:15:17,210 that cannot be realised. 691 01:15:22,570 --> 01:15:26,570 My prints, none of which were ever made with the primary aim 692 01:15:26,650 --> 01:15:31,610 of making something beautiful, simply caused me headaches. 693 01:15:33,250 --> 01:15:38,490 That is the reason why I never feel fully at home amongst my colleagues. 694 01:15:39,530 --> 01:15:43,290 They pursue beauty first and foremost. 695 01:15:43,350 --> 01:15:47,930 Perhaps I only pursue wonder. 696 01:15:54,970 --> 01:15:59,490 I really believe that the high-end art world 697 01:15:59,570 --> 01:16:04,090 is going to rediscover Escher and I think that his artwork 698 01:16:04,170 --> 01:16:08,930 is going to be appreciated for what it really is, stunning work. 699 01:16:09,010 --> 01:16:12,930 And I think the rest of the world is going to have to catch up 700 01:16:12,990 --> 01:16:14,970 to Escher's work. 701 01:16:15,050 --> 01:16:20,090 I think it will... it will transcend into the future brilliantly. 702 01:16:20,170 --> 01:16:24,770 The crazier this place gets, the noisier this place gets, 703 01:16:24,850 --> 01:16:28,130 you know, the more his work is really interesting. 704 01:16:29,690 --> 01:16:31,770 He's going to be much more appreciated 705 01:16:31,850 --> 01:16:35,130 in the coming... in the coming years. I really feel it.