Escher, M. C.
M. C. Escher (Mauris Cornelis Escher) (1898-1971) was a Dutch artist. His work consisted mostly of prints: lithographs, woodcuts, and wood engravings. His work has connections with mathematical themes. Many of them are based on tessellations.
His transformation pictures feature regular, repeating patterns of objects which change and transform, row by row or column by column. For example, in Sky and Water, rows of birds start out as realistic and detailed. In successive rows, the birds become less realistic, more stylized, and more vague, and gradually transform themselves into empty spaces between rows of fish at the bottom of the page. Meanwhile, the empty spaces between the birds gradually become more and more fish-shaped and transform themselves into solid fish.
One of his most elaborate transformation pictures, Metamorphosis, is only nine inches high but over thirteen feet long (and difficult to frame!). A square pattern made from the word "Metamorphose" is transformed successively into a chessboard, lizards, hexagons, a beehive, bees, birds, fish, a rhombic pattern, a town (specifically Atrani, in Italy), then a chessboard with pieces (the rook on the chessboard is also a tower from Atrani's fortifications), and back again to the words "Metamorphose."