Regular Division of the Plane V

Woodcut in red.
 
This tessellation introduces a pattern that Escher found satisfying. Earlier, he was unsure about how to show that a tessellation can fill an infinite plane and simultaneously have logical boundaries. A number of his works had tessellations cut off mid-figure at the page’s edge (Sky and Water I for instance) or fade into grayness at the edges (Encounter), and others had artificial boundaries, such as the paper’s edge in Reptiles. But the lizards get impossibly small, creating a distinct boundary defined by the limitations of the woodcutting tools, and at the same time, still represent infinity. The observer intuitively knows that they keep shrinking in size forever. Variations of this same technique are used in the woodcuts Smaller and Smaller and the four Circle Limit prints.
 
All Regular Division of the Plane woodcuts were printed in both black and red versions. Please contact me regarding pricing and availability.