The Dutch visionary artist Maurits Escher was recognised during his lifetime primarily by the mathematical and scientific community. His exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in 1954 was organised to coincide with the International Congress of Mathematicians. After his death, however, Escher’s work was taken apart and quoted extensively by our digital age – from computer games to Christopher Nolan’s famous film Inception. The “Penrose Staircase” – the infinite staircase on which a character can move in a circle while seemingly continuing to climb – is an obvious visual reference to Escher, above all to his Ascending and Descending (1960).

The master of visual puzzles who makes you question your own eyesight is waiting for you at Tour & Taxis with the exhibition Beyond Infinity, opening on 16 September 2026. Playful, mysterious, interactive (at last, interactivity that actually makes sense), and informative, with 150 original works. Escher invites you to take part in his “mind games” and draws you into his conceptual art.

The scenography is mind-blowing — a solid 10/10 for Tempora, Belgium’s leading exhibition design company, working here in collaboration with the M.C. Escher Foundation and M.C. Escher Heritage. It never competes with the artist, as exhibition design so often does. Instead, it extends his play with space: staircases, reflections, impossible structures and interactive objects translate his graphic experiments from the flat surface of the page into three-dimensional space. At some point, almost without noticing – as in a dream or a fairy tale — you find yourself inside Escher’s own logic. An exhibition that feels like a dream!

“I can say that no print ever succeeds. They are all doomed to failure, because I am always trying to make a dream image come true, which is impossible to achieve.” – Maurits Escher

“M.C. Escher’s work, rooted in geometric illusions, impossible transformations and perceptual games, is more relevant than ever. It enters into a dialogue with the contemporary world, saturated with images created by digital technologies, virtual realities and artificial intelligence, which is becoming increasingly adept at manipulating visual space.”

Federico Giudiceandrea, Chairman of the M.C. Escher Foundation

Long before the emergence of graphic design, which we can regard him as a forerunner of, Maurits Cornelis Escher was born in the Netherlands in the 19th century. His father was a civil engineer specialising in water management and worked in Japan; the family belonged to the educated Dutch bourgeoisie. His parents hoped that Maurits would become an architect.

In 1918, Escher enrolled at the Technical University in Delft, still considered one of Europe’s leading institutions, but architecture did not really appeal to him. In 1919, he moved to the School of Arts in Haarlem. There, his graphic arts teacher Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita (who would later be murdered in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in 1943) saw his early work and persuaded the young Escher to transfer to the graphic arts department. It was here that Escher effectively found his vocation: woodcuts and other graphic techniques. In the history of art, it is quite unusual for an artist to devote himself so completely to a medium such as printmaking.

His year at the architecture faculty was far from wasted: architecture became an inseparable part of Escher’s artistic universe. Take Relativity (1953), for example – an impossible space filled with staircases, arches and several systems of gravity. It looks like perfectly convincing architecture until you realise that, according to the laws of physics, it simply cannot exist. The space operates according to several gravitational systems: what is a floor for one person becomes a wall or ceiling for another.

For anyone familiar with Escher’s work, staircases are probably the first thing that comes to mind. Researchers at the Escher Museum have discovered a connection with the staircase in the school Escher attended in Arnhem – and it has to be said, he was hardly an outstanding pupil.

The exhibition’s scenography skilfully brings Escher’s biography to life. In 1922, Maurits first travelled to Spain and visited the Alhambra in Granada. The geometric patterns of Islamic architecture made a profound impression on him. He was particularly fascinated by the principle of completely covering a surface with repeating shapes.

A real transformation came later. In 1936, Escher returned with his wife Jetta. Together, they literally studied and copied the palace’s ornamental patterns. For the exhibition, a fragment of the palace architecture has been specially recreated. Monumental arches and mirror effects invite you to walk through the setting and see how M.C. Escher rediscovered the principle of tessellation, here given its full meaning…

After this journey, he began systematically experimenting with what we now call tessellation – filling a plane with repeating shapes. This is where his famous birds, fish, lizards and other creatures gradually emerged, transforming into one another. He worked with a fanatical, systematic, almost mathematical precision, constantly developing his ideas.

At the same time, it was essential for him to use recognisable forms as building blocks. For the exhibition, a spectacular carpet of lizards has been specially created, remarkable for both its beauty and its graphic precision.

He combined this methodical approach with what he himself called his “playful, childlike spirit” – his ability to be amazed:

“Perhaps I am only striving for wonder, and therefore wish only to arouse wonder in my viewers.” – Maurits Escher

After completing his studies, Escher, fascinated by Italy, lived there for many years, drawing inspiration from its landscapes and nature. Through his conscious choice of graphic art, he translated them into the language of stark black-and-white images, often viewed from unusual, extreme perspectives.

With Mussolini coming to power, Escher felt compelled to leave the country. The decision had a profound impact on him. In Italy, his work had been primarily concerned with depicting the world around him; after leaving, he had to look within himself for his sources of inspiration. His art became a reflection of his inner world.

Before returning to the Netherlands, he spent several years living in Belgium, in Uccle. It was here that he created his first works in which the distinctive features of his future artistic language were already clearly emerging, including Day and Night and Metamorphosis.

We are left wondering about the “non-encounter” between Maurits Escher and René Magritte. There are striking “asymmetrical similarities” in their work.

A half-finished cup of coffee. The artist’s studio has been recreated as though he had just stepped outside for some fresh air and would be back any moment. His worktable, tools, everyday objects, proof prints and engravings – the reconstruction is remarkably precise and creates a powerful sense of presence. It is complemented by archival footage of Escher at work.

Have you ever seen a dance of crabs set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach? According to the artist himself, the composer was one of the most important sources of inspiration for his work. One way, then the other, and finally both at once – two streams of sound cross at the centre and fit together perfectly, just as they do in many of Escher’s works.

Escher repeatedly questioned whether he was actually creating “art” at all. This was partly a response to the way the art world viewed his work: within the professional art establishment, his art was often not taken seriously. Yet this did not stop him from stubbornly pursuing his own path, largely in solitude.

Escher found an audience among mathematicians and crystallographers, who recognised in his prints a visual embodiment of their formulas. The artist intuitively created visual structures whose mathematical foundations specialists were able to understand only decades later. Today, this kind of art is known as “science art”, and it no longer comes as a surprise.

In July 1969, Maurits Escher completed his final work, the woodcut Snakes. It can be seen as a kind of summary – a synthesis of his entire artistic œuvre.

What makes the work remarkable is that it presents two forms of infinity: one emerges as the pattern moves towards the edge of the image, while the other appears as it moves towards the centre. Here, Escher seems to push his central idea to its limit: infinity is no longer depicted as some distant perspective; it exists simultaneously at the centre and at the periphery of the image.

1969 – the year humanity first travelled to the Moon and photographs of Earth from space transformed our understanding of space. Escher created his final print, devoted to infinity.