M.C. Escher: The Mathemagician

Organized by the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Alberta.

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898–1972) was a skilled draughtsman, book illustrator, tapestry design and muralist, but he is best-known for his prints that reflect his fascination with order, symmetry and spatial logic.

Featuring 54 works drawn from the Gallery’s extensive collection of M.C. Escher prints, this exhibition presents the various themes that fascinated this unique artist.

The works selected for M.C. Escher: The Mathemagician, trace the artist’s career, beginning with the rare woodcut Eight Heads (1922), which illustrates his early interest in patterns of interlocking repetitive shapes, a kind of representation that would later make him famous.

The exhibition also includes examples of the different printmaking processes in which Escher was proficient, from woodcuts (Circular Limit III, 1959), to lithographs (Bond of Union, 1956), and even mezzotint (Mummified Frog, 1946), an extremely laborious technique. Visitors will discover his passion for the Italian landscape (Bonifacio, Corsica, 1928), for perception (Print Gallery, 1956) and for impossible architectures (Relativity, 1953).