The most iconic works by Dutch artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972), including a pair of hands drawing themselves and fish morphing into birds, are familiar to many. This exhibition of 120 woodcuts, lithographs, mezzotints, and drawings delves deeper into both the literal and impossible worlds Escher created over a career spanning five decades. Drawn from a large private collection of M.C. Escher’s work, Reality and Illusion includes early figure drawings, lesser-known book illustrations, detailed Italian landscapes, the tessellations for which he became famous, and examples of his signature architectural fantasies in which stairways seem to go both up and down. From the collection of Herakleidon Museum, Athens, Greece, www.herakleidon-art.gr

  
M.C. Escher, Bond of Union, 1956, lithograph. © 2016 The M.C. Escher Company, The Netherlands. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com

M.C. Escher, Drawing Hands, 1948, lithograph. © 2016 The M.C. Escher Company, The Netherlands. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com