Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Mortensen's book is a captivating and unique combination of art history and philosophical reflection. It will fascinate any thoughtful reader and is required reading for anyone interested in the genre of "impossible pictures." Someone who reads the book will never see such pictures in quite the same way again."—Graham Priest, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
"Whoever believes that thinking about the impossible must be itself impossible, should read this book. Combining art, art history, logic and philosophy, the reader will explore the richly structured world of impossibilia. The book's title is indeed true: Chris Mortensen makes the impossible arise."—Jean Paul Van Bendegem, Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
"This is a beautiful book about impossible pictures and the people who draw them. Art, mathematics, philosophy, and history meet in a huge gallery of mind-bending paradoxical images. Mortensen brings long experience and a light touch as he guides us through this strange corner of geometry."—Zach Weber, University of Otago
Table of ContentsPreface
Part One: Oscar Reutersvärd
1. Introducing Oscar
2. More Oscar
3. What Did Oscar Think He Was Doing?
4. Critique of Oscar's Philosophy
5. On Encountering Oscar Reutersvärd, by Catherine Speck
Part Two: M. C. Escher
6. Escher and the Penroses Discover Each Other
7. How to Talk About Weird Things
8. Escher and Impossibilia
Part Three: Contemporaries
9. Richard Pybus
10. Bruno Ernst
11. Those Who Followed After, a Chronology
12. Conclusion
Appendix: The Collection by Bruno Ernst of Drawings and Letters from Oscar Reutersvärd in The Lilly Library at Indiana University
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