Alain Nicolas

Graphic artist
Nicolas Tessellation
Quincy-sous-Sénart, France

Among the disciplines that come from a mixture of mathematics and srt, figurative tiling is the most fascinating of all, as there is something magical in seeing complex identical forms assemble without leaving any gap in between them into infinity. This process requires imagination rather than artistic qualities or geometrical knowledge. I am fascinated by figurative tiling, which offers the most beautiful approach through the imagination to infinity and eternity.

In Search of Infinity
In Search of Infinity
52 x 52 cm
porcelain
2022

Maurits Cornelis Escher's infinity tessellations (such as his Circle Limit series) exhibit a true mastery of detailed craftsmanship. This artwork (In Search of Infinity) was designed with Illustrator in a vector format. Modern digital technology allows more precise hyperbolic symmetry than can be achieved using manual techniques. Moreover, to my knowledge it is the only hyperbolic tessellation whose characters are all directed from the center to the outer edge. Note also, that there are five types of birds in the mosaic, and two adjacent birds have different colors. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve such color symmetry automatically by a computer algorithm. The porcelain was produced commercially from a digital file.