Somerset House
From £16.50
Is it art, or is it maths? It’s a question even MC Escher himself couldn’t answer about his own work. While the Dutch printmaker known for his infinite staircases, metamorphosing tessellations and paradoxical buildings was rejected by the art world, he was revered by mathematicians, and is now one of the most famous optical illusionists of all time.
The OG creator of images that make you go ‘Huh?’ is going under the microscope in London with a blockbuster exhibition celebrating his life and work this summer. Created by Italian company Arthemisia and the immersive peeps at Fever, MC Escher: The Exhibition has arrived at Somerset House as part of its world tour.
The family-friendly display is surprisingly big. With more than 150 artworks on show, it tells the story of Escher’s life and work in chronological order, before it gets to the biggies – the ones that have been wheeled out in maths classrooms for decades – towards the end. You’ll see the originals of ‘Waterfall’, where water appears to run upwards, ‘Ascending and Descending’, the looping staircase that goes up and down simultaneously, and ‘Belvedere’ depicting an impossible tower. And you’ll learn about the techniques and mathematics that make these illusions possible along the way.
The meticulous craft that went into his totally baffling work is evident.
On a personal level, I can see why Escher was rebuffed by the art world. Many of his works seem like something from a bad acid trip: giant, bulbous ants; monstrous-looking humans with disproportionate features; strange lizards with long, darting tongues and swarms of hundreds of amphibians that appear to be stepping off the page towards you. However, the meticulous craft that went into his totally baffling work is evident, as videos show you how he crafted his intricate woodblocks, lithographs and mezzotints, while the tools used to make them are displayed alongside.
Somerset House is certainly buying into the craze for Instagrammable family-friendly museums (see: Twist Museum, Paradox Museum, Dopamine Land), as this show has got plenty of interactive, grid-worthy moments that encourage selfies. But they aren’t totally gratuitous, because they allow visitors to play with the techniques that Escher used,from the surreal infinite loops of the droste effect tothe Penrose triangle and the confounding hollow-face illusion.
While these rigidly technical drawings might not be to everyone’s taste, MC Escher is a comprehensive and fun exhibition that’s got a lot more substance than some of the immersive shows London has seen in recent years, and has a wide appeal for people of all ages. If you are a gaga for geometry, are fascinated by fractals, or just have a penchant for the psychedelic, you will find plenty to be engrossed by here.
