M.C. Escher Prints Digitized and Put Online by the Boston Public Library

Back in the 80's I worked with a lady that had the north American rights for t-shirts in all things Escher. I did a good deal of the graphic arts photography (how you did prepess pre computer) for the t-shirts. got to handle the original prints of most of the common Eschers you see. They have amazing detail that you usually don't see in reproductions. I used to say a good looking halftone is a terrible halftone as part of it is compensating for ink spread. A deep black on a normal press is about 85% black, even more grey if it was going to newsprint. For the shirts we were down to 40-50% as there was considerable ink spread in the silkscreen process...

Direct link https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?f%5Bcollection_na...

Very sad that their prints have discolored so badly.

For reasons that I cannot imagine, the Canadian National Art Gallery has a complete set of Escher prints that was bequeathed to the gallery by M.C. Escher himself.

If you ever get a chance to see them exhibited, you MUST do so. I have loved Escher prints, ever since I discovered them as a teenager. But seeing the actual prints in person is extraordinary. They were larger than I expected, and they display incredible craftsmanship that photographs do not convey at all -- beautiful paper, blindingly white, with broad white borders, crisp dense black ink, each one meticulously printed. As physical objects, they have gravitas and seriousness. Its is obvious that an enormous amount of effort went into producing perfect prints. Fun as photographs, but fiercely beautiful in person.

Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, the Canadian National Gallery does not display them often. I regularly visit the National Gallery, but I've only ever seen them once.

I wonder whether there are conservation steps that the Boston Public Library can take to deal with the discoloration.

What would be the best way/source to get these printed , I mean framing and display worthy?

I’m assuming most home printers won’t be useful here.

This is a great development -- it's surprisingly difficult to high quality scans of a lot of Escher's work.