M. C. Escher in popular culture

There are numerous references to famous Dutch painter M.C. Escher, in popular culture.

References to Relativity

Film

The idea of Shahram Mokri's 2013 film Fish & Cat came from Escher's paintings.^[1]The director gives a change in the perspective of time in one single shot.
In Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), Sir Lancelot, Teddy, and Larry Daley enter the painting Relativity, and experience the same strange gravity featured in the painting.
In Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977), Escher's art is painted on several walls, as well as the main location of the film being on the fictitious "Escherstrasse", an obvious nod to the artist.

Television

In the Drawn Together episode "Clara's Dirty Little Secret", Clara thinks she is pregnant, and Toot suggests that she fall down some stairs. Clara thinks of a suitable room and leads them to the "M. C. Escher room", where Toot pushes Clara down (and up, around, and back down) a flight of stairs.
In the Family Guy episode "Brian Goes Back to College", Stewie and Brian share a room where Stewie puts up a framed print of Relativity, which he calls "Crazy Stairs." He then breaks it while playing Ultimate Frisbee and asks "Oh no, did that hit crazy stairs?". In a later episode, "No Meals on Wheels", Peter complains that the fact that his new restaurant is attracting paraplegics "is weirder than that rap video by M.C. Escher." Escher is then depicted inside Relativity dressed like MC Hammer in "U Can't Touch This". and rapping, "Going up the stairs and going down the stairs and going up the stairs and going down the stairs and going up the sideways stairs."
On the SyFy show Warehouse 13, Escher is said by the character Leena to be one of the architects, along with Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, who designed the Warehouse. The Escher Vault's design resembles the lithograph Relativity. Inside this vault, the stairwells and walls are constantly moving. Anyone not wearing specially designed glasses run the risk of being lost forever once inside. H.G. Wells is the only known individual to have successfully navigated the Escher Vault without glasses, instead using her Inperceptor Vest to retrieve personal items stored within.

Video games

In the city building game Afterlife, Hell's ultimate punishment for Envy is called the Escher pit and is designed to torture souls by having them all be given different punishments, and after a few days are allowed to switch with a neighbor, thinking he/she is better off, only to find that all punishments are worse than the last. The outside slightly resembles Relativity.
In AdventureQuest Worlds, the first lord of chaos is Escherion, who has the ability to invert objects and lives in a castle with an inside similar to "Relativity".
In the Psygnosis game "Lemmings", the 18th level of "Taxing" is named "Tribute to M.C. Escher", as the solution involves building a zigzag stairway slightly reminiscent of "Relativity".

Music

"Escher," a song on Teenage Fanclub's album Thirteen, with lyrics that deal with disorientation.

Other

A man, Andrew Lipson, created a Lego version of Relativity.^[2]
In 1981, Austria issued a postage stamp featuring Escher's Impossible Dice Construction^[3] and a 1998 Netherlands stamp illustrated a portrait of the artist alongside one of his works.^[4]^[3]

References to other works

The Doctor Who episode "Castrovalva" takes its name from Escher's early lithograph of the same name, though Escher's view of Castrovalva has none of the paradoxical elements of his later works to which the setting of the episode could more readily be compared.^[5]
Sheila Chandra included a piece called "Escher's Triangle" on her CD Roots and Wings - the title refers to Escher's use of the Penrose triangle in pictures like Waterfall.
A comic crossover between Mike Allred's Madman and Bernie Mireault's The Jam, features Escher as a central character when the two characters enter into an alternate universe created by a somewhat godlike Escher, based on many of his works.^[6]
In 2006 Audi released a commercial with many Escher-inspired scenes.^[7]

References

↑ "Meet Shahram Mokri, director of Iran's first slasher film". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
↑ Lego Version of M.C. Escher's Relativity
1 2 "M.C. Escher stamps". Stamp catalogue. Colnect.com. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
↑ Hathaway, Dale K. (2015-11-17). "Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898 - 1972)". Olivet Nazarene University. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
↑ Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide
↑ Madman/Jam #1-2 (of 2)
↑ M C Escher Audi Drive Illusion

M. C. Escher

Works

1910s	Escher's Father Bookplate Bastiaan Kist Chrysanthemum Head of a child Skull Railway Bridge, Oosterbeek Mascot Portrait of a Man (I) Self-Portrait (I) Baby Young Thrush Bookplate M. C. Escher Self-Portrait (II) Jug The Rag Pickers Fiet van Stolk Waves Self-Portrait (III) White Cat (I) The Borger Oak Portrait Seated Man with cat on his lap Tree Self-Portrait (IV) Parrot White Cat (II) Sea-shell
1920s	Self Portrait in a Chair Rabbits Female Nude in a Landscape Wild West The Fall of Men Escher's Father with Magnifying Glass Portrait of a Man (II) Man Standing Seated Old Woman Flower Seated Female Nude (I) Seated Female Nude (II) Seated Female Nude (III) Roosje Ingen Housz Poster Plane-filling Motif with Human Figures Paradise Seated Female Nude (IV) Seated Female Nude (V) Hand with Fir Cone St Francis Eight Heads Eagle, vignette Dolphins San Gimignano Self-Portrait (V) Portrait of Jetta Vitorchiano nel Cimino The First Day of the Creation The Sixth Day of Creation The Fall of Man Procession in Crypt Rome Castle in the Air Tower of Babel Fara San Martino, Abruzzi Corte, Corsica The Drowned Cathedral Infant Arthur Escher Self-Portrait (VI) Barbarano, Cimino
1930s	Street in Scanno, Abruzzi Castrovalva The Bridge Fiumara, Calabria Tropea, Calabria Cloister near Rocca Imperiale, Calabria Atrani, Coast of Amalfi Covered Alley in Atrani Ravello and the Coast of Amalfi Coast of Amalfi Farmhouse, Ravello San Cosimo, Ravello Turello, Southern Italy Porta Maria dell'Ospidale, Ravello Lion of the Fountain in the Piazza at Ravello San Michele dei Frisone, Rome Mumified Priests in Gangi, Sicily Temple of Segeste, Sicily Cave Dwellings (near Sperlinga) Sicily Palm Caltavuturo in the Madonie Mountains Sicily Cloister of Monreale Sicily Lava Flow of 1928 from Etna Sicily Pineta of Calvi, Corsica Phosphorescent Sea Fireworks Old Olive Tree, Corsica Nonza, Corsica Still Life with Mirror Nocturnal Rome: Colonade of St Peter's Nocturnal Rome: Santa Maria del Popolo Nocturnal Rome: Trajan's Column Nocturnal Rome: Basilica of Constantine Nocturnal Rome: Castel Sant' Angelo Nocturnal Rome: Colosseum Aeroplane above Snowy Landscape Still Life with Spherical Mirror Hand with Reflecting Sphere Regular Division of the Plane Inside St Peter's Portrait of G.A. Escher Sengela, Malta Hell, copy after Hieronymus Bosch Snow Prickly Flower House in the Lava near Nunziata, Sicily Still Life and Street Metamorphosis I Development I Day and Night Cycle Sky and Water I Sky and Water II Entrance to the Oude Kerk, Delft Development II (I) Development II (II) Oostpoort, Delft Nieuwe Kerk, Delft Town Hall, Delft Voldersgracht, Delft
1940s	Metamorphosis II Bookplate Dr. P.H.M. Travaglino Horse (No. 8) Sea Horse (No. 11) Lizard (No. 15) Eagle (No. 17) Two Birds (No. 18) Fish (No. 20) Clowns (No. 21) Bird / Fish (No. 22) Lizard (No. 25) Three Birds (No. 28) Fish Plane-filling Motif with Reptiles Bird / Fish (No. 34) Bird / Fish (No. 34B) Dragonfly (No. 38) Crab (No. 40) Two Fish (No. 41) Shells and Starfish (No. 42) Bird (No. 44) Angel-Devil (No. 45) Verbum Two Fish (No. 46) Frog (No. 51) Fish (No. 55) Lizard (No. 56) Two Fish (No. 57) Two Fish (No. 58) Two Fish (No. 59) Two Lizards (No. 60) Reptiles Ant Blowball (I) Blowball (II) Encounter Two Creatures (No. 61) Devil (No. 62) Pessimist-Optimist (No. 63) Balcony Doric Columns Three Spheres I Diploma Tijdelijke Academie, Eindhoven Winged Lion (No. 66) Magic Mirror Three Spheres II Horseman Mumified Frog Eye New Year's greeting-card Gallery Horseman (No. 67) Another World Up and Down Drawing Hands Dewdrop Sun and Moon Study for Stars Stars Fish / Duck / Lizard (No. 69) Butterfly (No. 70) Fish / Boat (No. 72) New Year's greeting card Plane-filling Motif with Birds Regular Division of the Plane with Birds Sea-shells Fish and Frogs Double Planetoid Flying Fish (No. 73) Horse / Bird (No. 76)
1950s	Order and Chaos Rippled Surface Devils (vignette) Unicorn (No. 78) Flying Fish / Bird (No. 80) Predestination Plane Filling I Curl-up House of Stairs Bird / Fish (No. 82) Thirty-Six Different Motifs (No. 83) Bird / Fish (No. 8) Two Intersecting Planes Puddle Gravitation Lizard / Fish / Bat (No. 85) Two Birds (No. 87) Sea Horse (No. 88) Concentric Rinds Relativity Spirals Beetle (No. 91) Bookplate A.R.A. Wertheim Tetrahedral Planetoide Fish (No. 93) Convex and Concave Liberation Rind Depth Three Worlds Fish (No. 94) Swan (No. 96) Swans Bond of Union Print Gallery Division Smaller and Smaller Lizards (No. 101) Cube with Magic Ribbons Plane Filling II Whirlpools Belvedere Sphere Surface with Fish Sphere Spirals Flatworms Circle Limit II Circle Limit III Lizard (No. 104) Pegasus (No. 105)
1960s	Ascending and Descending Circle Limit IV Fish (No. 107) Möbius Strip I Waterfall Creeping Creature (No. 109) Fish, Fish / Bird (No. 109 II) Bird / Fish (No. 110) Möbius Strip II Knots Lizard (No. 124) Path of Life III Fish / Bird (No. 126) Bird (No. 128) Metamorphosis III Snakes

Mathematics and art
Escher Museum
Escher in popular culture
Video games inspired by Escher
Adventures in Perception (1971 documentary)
Gödel, Escher, Bach (1979 book)

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