ESCHER

20/09/14-22/02/15

Exhibition of more than 150 works by the superb Dutch artist, draughtsman and engraver, Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972).

The aim of this anthological exhibition is to highlight this intellectual’s manner of observing nature from another angle in order to bring out the subtle beauty of a geometrical regularity that, at times, leads us into an ambit of magic and playfulness. Our itinerary, as we look upon Escher’s works, reveals the interpenetration of simultaneous worlds, an unceasing passage between three- and two-dimensional objects, and also Gestalt research (Gestalt being the current of the psychology of shape, or form, whose focus is on issues relating to perception). It reveals the mathematical and geometrical implications of his art, laws of visual perception, and the resonance of his work within the society of his day.

Escher’s work basically came about as a result of his utter amazement at the beauty of Italian scenery, whether the countryside around Siena, the seascapes of Tropea, the declivities of Castrovalva or the anthropomorphic outcrops of Pentadattilo. As he contemplated these landscapes, his eyes picked out regularity in volumes, the unexpected dimension of spaces, the historical profundities of towns and ‘borghi’ – boroughs, or hamlets. After familiarising himself with these places – so different from the gentle flatness of his own land, Holland – there emerged within him the direction he would take as an artist, on his journey into the endless expanses of geometry and crystallography – fertile expanses for intellectual games where the imagination reigns supreme. Indeed, Escher managed to pinpoint the reality of the geometrical reticulum or mesh subtending objects, and to exploit that reality as a compositional starting point for construction of what would later be termed “inner images”.

Thus, when he finally left Italy and reached Cordova and the Alhambra in 1936, in the play of the tessellation work (the element of attraction of the decorative apparatus of these Moorish monuments), Escher found a vibrant stimulus for further creative efforts, accompanied by the re-emergence of the culture of Art Nouveau that was a part of his education as an artist.

In Escher’s works we have a narrative of the interpenetration of simultaneous worlds, an unceasing to-and-fro movement between three- and two-dimensional objects, and also Gestalt research (Gestalt being the current of the psychology of shape, or form, whose focus is on issues relating to perception), the mathematical and geometrical implications of his art, laws of visual perception, and the resonance of his work on the society of his day.

Full details

from 20-9-2014 to 22-2-2015

See Chiostro del Bramante

Address

Arco della Pace, 5

Email: didattica@arthemisia.it (per la didattica)

Online purchase: http://www.ticket.it/escher/

Telephone: +39 06 916508451 info e prenotazioni

Web site: http://chiostrodelbramante.it/info/escher/

Hours

20 September, 2014 - 22 February, 2015

Monday - Friday: 10.00-20.00 (last admission 19.00) Saturday - Sunday: 10.00-21.00 (last admission 20.00)

Period

20-9-2014 to 22-2-2015