''Drawing Hands'' is a

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...

by the Dutch artist

M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; ; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made woodcuts, lithography, lithographs, and mezzotints, many of which were Mathematics and art, inspired by mathematics. Despite wide popular int ...

first printed in January 1948. It depicts a sheet of paper, out of which two hands rise, in the

paradoxical A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictor ...

act of drawing one another into existence. This is one of the most obvious examples of Escher's common use of paradox. It is referenced in the book ''

Gödel, Escher, Bach ''Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid'' (abbreviated as ''GEB'') is a 1979 nonfiction book by American cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter. By exploring common themes in the lives and works of logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Esc ...

'', by

Douglas Hofstadter Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born 15 February 1945) is an American cognitive and computer scientist whose research includes concepts such as the sense of self in relation to the external world, consciousness, analogy-making, Strange loop, strange ...

, who calls it an example of a strange loop. It is used in '' Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs'' by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman as an allegory for the eval and

apply In mathematics and computer science, apply is a function that applies a function to arguments. It is central to programming languages derived from lambda calculus, such as LISP and Scheme, and also in functional languages. It has a role in the ...

functions of programming language interpreters in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

, which feed each other. ''Drawing Hands'' has been referenced and copied many times by artists in different ways. In tech culture, robot hands draw or build each other, or a human hand and robot hand draw each other.

References

Bibliography

* {{printmaking-stub 1948 paintings Works by M. C. Escher