M.C. Escher. The Exhibition

A major retrospective dedicated to Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher (Maurits Cornelis Escher) is coming to London for the first time this summer.

Bringing together more than 150 original works, the exhibition introduces a new generation of Londoners to the artist whose impossible staircases, shifting perspectives and intricate geometric worlds continue to shape contemporary visual culture.

Featuring iconic works including Relativity, Drawing Hands and Ascending and Descending, it traces the full development of M.C. Escher’s artistic career – from his earliest landscapes through to the tessellations, metamorphoses, and the visual paradoxes of his impossible constructions. Alongside these, the exhibition will feature interactive installations allowing visitors to explore the conceptual mechanisms underlying his work.

Escher was a one-off, a one-man art movement who created some of the most enduringly influential images of the 20th century, informing films such as Labyrinth, Inception and Squid Game, as well as countless album and book covers and video games. Yet while much of his work is instantly recognisable it is seldom on view in the UK. Seen in person, the intricacy and meticulous detail of Escher’s lithographs, etchings, mezzotints and woodcuts astonishes, his technical mastery demonstrating a grasp on reality so strong that he was able to turn it on its head and play with it.

From £16.50

Tue to Sat 10am–7pm Sun 10am-–5pm