After a 10-year absence, MUDEC brings one of the most fascinating and recognizable artists of the 20th century, Maurits Cornelis Escher (Netherlands, 1898-1972), back to Milan with a major project entirely dedicated to him that offers a new look at his artistic journey.
Through 90 of the artist’s works including etchings, watercolors, woodcuts and lithographs, as well as some 40 comparative Islamic pieces, the exhibition investigates the relationship between Escher and his sources of inspiration, following theartist’s evolution: from his Art Nouveau-related beginnings, through Italian landscapes, to his full maturity in which he developed the use of tessellations, metamorphic cycles, optical illusions and representations of infinity that made him famous through a unique visual language that combines art and mathematics.
That mathematics made not of the abstract reasoning of professional academics, but of a long, painstaking and passionate craftsmanship, based on a more intuitive and perceptive approach and leading to the fusion of art and science in a rigorous, inventive and deeply personal vision, in a common thread that strongly characterizes the exhibition itinerary.
The exhibition also delves into an aspect that is still little known to the general public, namely the close relationship the artist had with Islamic art and how the use of symmetries, modular repetition and the abstract view of space – key elements of Islamic art – offered Escher a very important cue to overcome the naturalistic representation of reality.
Finally, the exhibition dwells on an Escher who made this “graphic universe“his stylistic signature also in his vast commercial production, recalling how his genius also confronted applied areas of graphic design.
Enriching the journey is a series of immersive multimedia installations curated by Maurits Srl, including an Infinity Room finale that takes visitors into a fascinating and immersive environment with a kaleidoscopic effect, thanks to the projection of high-definition animations inside a mirrored room.
Produced by 24 ORE Cultura – 24 ORE Group and promoted by the City of Milan-Cultura with the support of sponsor Turisanda1924 – part of Alpitour World, the exhibition is in collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Den Haag and made possible thanks to the M.C. Escher Foundation.
The scientific committee, supported by the M. C. Escher Foundation and coordinated by Federico Giudiceandrea, based on a concept by Judith Kadee, Curator of the Kunstmusem Den Haag, consists of the curators Claudio Bartocci, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Geometry at the University of Genoa – for in-depth study of Escher’s links to mathematical and scientific aspects – Paul Branca, Professor of Arabic Language and Culture at the Catholic University of Milan – to investigate the relationship with Islamic art – and Claudio Salsi, Professor of History of Drawing, Engraving and Graphics at the Catholic University of Milan – for a lunge on the artist’s graphic production.
Far from the fashions of his time, M.C. Escher was able to construct a unique visual language, capable of uniting East and West, intuition and logic, scientific rigor and imagination. A bridge between worlds only seemingly distant, which to this day continues to surprise, question and inspire.
