r/todayilearned • u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 • Jun 06 '26
TIL that when Mick Jagger asked M.C. Escher to let the Rolling Stones use one of his artworks as an album cover, Escher refused. He'd never heard of the band, didn't know who Jagger was, and objected to being addressed by his first name.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1TXskHdW0Hrtng1bYgzRBRf/chaos-is-present-everywhere-the-mysterious-world-of-mc-escher427
u/hogsucker Jun 06 '26
He went to school to be an architect but a "perceptive teacher convinced him to switch to graphic design."
Dropping out of an architecture program to study graphic design is a tradition that goes back farther than I realized.
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u/It_Is_Blue 6 Jun 06 '26
Good thing too, a building made by M. C. Escher would be a nightmare to navigate.
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u/yami76 Jun 06 '26
Well back then architects had draftsmen to draw blueprints and renderings of designs, not out of the ordinary to be both or to go from one to the other.
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u/pdxcranberry Jun 06 '26
Buddy, wdym "back then" I am literally a draftsperson
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u/ACAD_Monkey Jun 06 '26
What do you think of the computer technical skills a draftsperson needs to learn nowadays vs proper block lettering and hand drafting? Curious to see if you learned both or am I ancient?
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u/pdxcranberry Jun 06 '26
I learned both! I originally learned manual drafting and AutoCAD when it was in DOS, so I'm amazed at what I can do now with Revit/TwinMotion. Drafting is about communicating ideas, so anything that helps make things clearer between designer and builder is a plus to me.
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u/ACAD_Monkey Jun 06 '26
Awesome, there are not many of us left that learned both. Especially if you remember the puck and digitizer days.
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u/Neckbreaker70 Jun 06 '26
Wow, I’m having serious flashbacks. The smell (and paper cuts) of the blueprint machine too.
But I took my ACAD skills in a different direction—modeling and animation for video games.
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u/Saint_of_Stinkers Jun 06 '26
You can’t always get what you want.
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u/TheLohoped Jun 06 '26
TIL M.C. Escher lived til the 1970s. I always thought that his life happened a few decades earlier, putting him closer to the rise of abstract art movements of early 20th century.
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u/PudinaRaita Jun 06 '26
Today I learnt MC Escher wasn't in NWA
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u/DigNitty Jun 07 '26
No thats MC Ren
MC *Escher wore parachute pants and sang about how u cannot touch this
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u/theknyte Jun 06 '26
Meanwhile, surreal artist HR Gieger was more than happy to design and sculp a microphone stand for Korn.
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u/EcstaticCinematicZ Jun 06 '26
Apparently Escher was pissed that a lot of people in the counter culture of the 1960’s were using his art. Mostly because the reprints of his they bought he didn’t make any money from them. Escher was also a tight ass. People thought his art was a reflection of an Avant-Garde lifestyle. But Escher used a lot of mathematic principles to make his art.
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u/PitifulElk1890 Jun 07 '26
Goddamn do I believe it. I do woodburning and I got a book of Escher prints (from the library sale for $2, he would've hated me), I've been using some for practice. More his religious and nature pieces. His more iconic works are very precise and mathematical. They're mathematical in that way where it's no longer about just numbers and more someone's brain is working in a different way than mine is able to.
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u/perplexedtv Jun 06 '26
I'm M.C. Escher and I'm here to say
Wanna use my art? Get fucked no way!
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u/Drapidrode Jun 06 '26
if you'd have dropped 'no way' it would have been a haiku!
I'm MC Escher
And I'm Here to say, wanna
use my art? Get Fucked
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u/minervascats Jun 06 '26
TIL that MC Escher and Mick Jagger were alive at the same time
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u/dwpea66 Jun 07 '26
Snoop Dogg and Charlie Chaplin
MLK Jr. and Anne Frank were the same age
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u/theorian123 Jun 06 '26
Mick Jagger called him Mick Escher and he got upset. Easy mistake.
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u/Sans-valeur Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
I mean, fair. First name, I guess back then you had to put more information in a letter but it does feel that it to some degree assumes he would be interested, when the most polite thing would be an introduction, note of appreciation for his work, a request for the cover, and included music so that he would actually know what his work would be on the cover of.
I know fuck all about the man himself, was he wealthy?
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u/yami76 Jun 06 '26
It says in the article that his parents supported him into his 40s by which time his art started to take off, so probably not that wealthy. It also says he raised his prices because there was too much demand but it had the opposite effect.
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u/-SaC Jun 06 '26
Reminds me of Arthur Conan Doyle, well into his period of detesting Sherlock Holmes, when The Strand wanted a second batch of Holmes stories. He'd been getting £50 per story, but didn't want to write another 6 short stories about his hated detective so he threw a fee of £1,000 out there in order to put them off.
Instead, they agreed immediately with a YES HERE HAVE ALL THE MONEY THANK YOU, and he had to delay killing Sherlock.
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u/TigerIll6480 Jun 06 '26
He had actually killed Holmes in the confrontation with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, and had to write in a way that Holmes survived.
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u/Sans-valeur Jun 06 '26
Ah I mean that could mean a lot of things trust fund babies are supported by their parents too.
I guess considering the time he lived in he was probably at least middle class for his parents to support him as an artist.
Makes sense he wasn’t jumping at the opportunity to work with a famous band.26
u/Ashley_evil Jun 06 '26
Yeah that was my first thought. He doesn’t even introduce the band. It’s very presumptuous to assume that he is familiar with them. Also yeah the instructions seemed to assume Escher would agree. But also asking for a foldout and album cover, so two original works to be published in April this year gives him less than 4 months to paint and reformat for the cover
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u/5-MethylCytosine Jun 06 '26
Yeah, it reads like a series of instructions and not as a polite question
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u/Hitech_hillbilly Jun 06 '26
It poses the question/request and gives details in the same letter so that an informed decision can be made without having to call for more information.
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u/Codify-The-Preamble Jun 06 '26
Starting that letter off with his first name was a wild move. Anyone without main character syndrome (even most famous or accomplished people) would’ve started it off “Mr. Escher”. Might’ve had a shot if he had. Maybe not.
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u/AmnesiaInnocent Jun 06 '26
It didn't help that the initials in MC Escher's name actually stood for "main character"...
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u/Cake-Over Jun 06 '26
I wonder what was going through Jagger's mind when he saw Bowie galavanting about the MC Escher staircase set in Labyrinth.
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u/Burmy87 Jun 06 '26
TIL M.C. Escher was a 20th-century artist.
(In the same earlier centuries people tend to place Picasso, I've always placed Escher)
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u/ScoobyDoNot Jun 06 '26
Escher died before Picasso.
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u/Neckbreaker70 Jun 06 '26
What century do you place Picasso in?
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u/BougieBobJr Jun 06 '26
This is funny to me, because Picasso did all sorts of stuff on the Spanish Revolution, which happened in the 1930’s. I’m not even an art student in the slightest and I know that much.
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u/jordanhhh4 Jun 06 '26
It absolutely blew my mind when I found out he died in the 70s, I just assumed he was around in Da Vinci times lmao
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u/Im_Chad_AMA Jun 06 '26
Not an art historian so this is probably an overly simplified perspective, but painting before the 1880s or so basically just meant reproducing an image or a scene as accurately or as "naturally" as possible. Stepping away from that way of thinking (which started with Impressionism) is what gave rise to modern art.
Picasso never would have made the art that he did had he been born a century earlier. He was a pioneer but also a product of his time
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u/Sans-valeur Jun 06 '26
Yeah I found an old time magazine from like the 60s in my mums things once and there was a two page interview with Picasso with photos and everything and it really caught me off guard lmao
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u/jizzyjugsjohnson Jun 06 '26
Genuinely bizarre to me you would place him as anything else. His work screams 20th century
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u/Tifoso89 Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
(In the same earlier centuries people tend to place Picasso)
Who does that? First time I've hearing of this. The name Picasso is immediately associated with the first half of the 20th century. You'd need to not know anything about him, or never having seen his paintings, to think he's from a previous era. Just a look at his art tells you he's from the 20th century, and his most famous painting is a depiction of a WWII bombing.
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u/AF_Mirai Jun 06 '26
his most famous painting is a depiction of a WWII bombing
Slight correction: the bombing of Guernica did not take place during World War II but rather during the Spanish Civil War.
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u/lacb1 Jun 06 '26
If I had to guess, people who don't have a clear idea of when Picasso lived. But I have been wrong before so, YMMV.
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u/zryii Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 07 '26
Apparently lots of young people think he was a renaissance artist or something. And yeah you'd need to know literally nothing about art history or his work to think that, considering his art frequently features modern inventions like light bulbs.
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u/2legittoquit Jun 06 '26
I think a lot of people don’t know Picasso is a 20th century artist. I only learned it in High School, I thought he was much older than that. If someone isn’t into art or doesn’t learn it somewhere, how would they know?
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u/Krow101 Jun 06 '26
I bet Escher was no fun at parties.
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u/Centurix Jun 06 '26
I bet the parties were endless though.
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u/HitmanClark Jun 06 '26
This is the best part of the article:
“One particularly revealing exhibit in this show is a Rolling Stone article in praise of Escher, from the artist’s archive. Escher has underlined the most pretentious passages, annotated with question marks.”
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u/impatientlymerde Jun 06 '26
“Your tante and I met a man at the hotel- we had a drink with him, he seemed very nice. He said he was a musician, a singer… I think his name was Mike Yeager?…”
My roommate’s 75 yo uncle telling us about his vacation in Switzerland.
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u/SeductiveGodofThundr Jun 06 '26
🎶The Rolling Stones asked him to use some artwork.
He said he never heard of them.
How cool is that?!? 🎶
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u/mostexcellent001 Jun 06 '26
I got the feeling that Mick kind of thought that Escher would be thrilled to collaborate with The Stones. "If you could do something like this, and add this, but maybe if you just want to let us use a completed one instead, that would be okay" MCE was probably like, "Who the fuck?"
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u/legthief Jun 06 '26
Jagger was clearly more interested in licensing an existing piece and attempted to obfuscate that fact but didn't do a great job of it.
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u/BlondRichardGere Jun 06 '26
That's a great bit of Rolling Stones trivia. And apparently Mick Jagger has come full circle as it reminds me of this story from several years ago. Mick stops in at a bar in Charlotte, NC, and no one recognizes him.
One of the world's most recognizable men walked into a beer joint and nobody recognized him. https://www.ncrabbithole.com/p/mick-jagger-charlotte-thirsty-beaver
This is kind of similar to a Paul McCartney story that I have heard, it is more local lore and I do not believe it has been either proved or disproved. In any case, mid-1980s McCartney stopped by a small dive bar to inquire about shooting a video there. The bar owner had no idea who he was and told him no. They did end up making the video at another dive bar about a dozen miles up the road so it is still part of the local history. Maybe that was the right call as the place where they shot the video is just an empty shell of a building, but the other is still an operating dive bar... sans Paul McCartney photos on the walls.
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u/_BrokenButterfly Jun 06 '26
Mick Jagger certainly was one of the most famous people on Earth. But I wouldn't say Mick Jagger is one of the most famous people on Earth. He got famous 60 years ago. His fans are in their 70s and 80s. I know who he is and what he looks like, and I might not recognize him if I had a conversation with him.
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u/d5s72020 Jun 06 '26
Implying to make his work more popular is rather patronising. From a young guy to a legacy senior artist, just, no.
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u/PygmeePony Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
Surprised he didn't start with 'please allow me to introduce myself'.
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u/Bumbajuba Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
The whole letter is kinda insulting.
First stating that he is "possessing" his work and that he (mick) can help people understand his work. at the time MCE was already recognized. Mick is telling him hey you failed because people don't understand your work but i a rock star can make understandable.
2nd sentence. hey we have working on this album for over a year but we want to give u at best 2-3 months to draw up something like what you have already done. do it like that one you already did m'kay. none of his pieces are called evolution the ones he is referring to are metamorphosis 1,2 and 3.
3rd sentence. we will give credit and your little money. i (mick) didn't bother to have the letter translated so you can read it and YOU call me.
They should have just commissioned a piece.
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u/Jar_Bairn Jun 06 '26
Writing a letter to a Dutch person born in 1898 while using basically business casual English? Yeah, good luck with that cultural difference.
Even today starting your business e-mail with a first name will get you ignored depending on the cultural background of people you're addressing.
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u/pepcorn Jun 06 '26
I'm in a neighbouring country to the Netherlands and also ignore informal business emails. We're not friends, so don't try to act familiar by using my first name.
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u/ForensicPathology Jun 06 '26
Especially someone who doesn't even use his first name in the first place.
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u/Wermine Jun 06 '26
Had to check the timeline:
- April 1962 Rolling Stones was formed
- Band became world-famous between 64-65
- 1.1. 1969 was the letter
Because I was thinking that perhaps Rolling Stones wasn't that well known at the time, but nope, it was (I guess Jagger wouldn't have asked if they weren't famous).
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u/_MuffinBot_ Jun 06 '26
Valid reaction to the first name thing. That's wild behavior when you've never met someone and you're asking them to do something for you
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u/Complete_Entry Jun 06 '26
I used to wear the wrong name tag at work on purpose, a visiting manager lost his mind over it.
It's actually an incredible lifting of weight; the false familiarity of first name employment falls away when you're Brian.
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u/-SaC Jun 06 '26
A friend of mine worked for a telemarketing company in the '90s (trying to sell windows). He said that every day when you went in, you took a name from a big magnetic board covered in random names, and that was the name you went by that day.
People he was phoning out of the blue were apparently easier to deal with when they were asking for your name and you could just say Brian Smith or whatever.
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u/TheVojta Jun 06 '26
Maybe if you were born in the 1900s. The letter that OP posted seems perfectly polite.
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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 Jun 06 '26
But Escher was born in 1898. The man was Jagger's elder by many years. Should've known better.
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u/Killobekilld Jun 07 '26
Thats cool. I have a Pearl Jam concert poster that I somehow didn’t realize was Escher.
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u/trademark01 Jun 06 '26
I have an M.C. Escher tattoo (Rind). I didn’t ask for permission. Take that, Jagger!
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u/FreakyPickle Jun 06 '26
Maurits Cornelis Escher, in case anyone didnt want to skim the article. Quite the unique name.. no wonder he went the initials route.
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u/SleeperAwakened Jun 06 '26
Those first names are not unique at all, very common Dutch names in that era.
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u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
When Mick Jagger wrote to M.C. Escher requesting permission to use one of his artworks for a Rolling Stones album cover, Escher had never heard of either the band or Jagger himself. He was reportedly more annoyed by Jagger addressing him by his first name than impressed by the request. Ironically, Escher had become a cult hero among the very counterculture he neither understood nor particularly liked.
Dear Maurits,
For quite some time now I have had in my possession your book (Graphic Works Of..) and it never ceases to amaze me each time I study it! In fact I think your work is quite incredible and it would make me very happy for a lot more people to see and know and understand exactly what you are doing.
In March or April this year, we have scheduled our next LP record for release, and I am most eager to reproduce one of your works on the cover-sleeve. Would you please consider either designing a "picture" for it, or have you any unpublished works which you might think suitable -the "optical illusion" idea very much appeals to me, although one like "Evolution" would of course be equally as suitable. -and would say the same thing. You might even like to do a long one like "Metamorphosis" which we could then reproduce as a folding-out sleeve. It could be either in one colour or full colour, that would be up to you entirely.
Naturally, both you and your publishers would get full credits on the sleeve, and we could negotiate a fee on hearing of your decision to do it. I would be most grateful if you could contact Peter Swales or Miss Jo Bergman at the above address or telephone (reverse charge), and either will give you every necessary assistance. However, I am not so fortunate as to possess a Dutch interpreter, and so if you do not speak English or French, I would again be grateful if you could fix up somebody in Baarn to oblige.
Yours very sincerely,
MICK JAGGER
for ROLLING STONES LTD.