Journey to Infinity: Escher’s World of Wonder

My husband and I went to the M.C. Escher exhibit “Journey to Infinity” at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands.

Below are 20+ photos of works by M.C. Escher, some long familiar to me and some totally new but all amazing.

Silence prevails.
Regular Division of the Plane with Seahorses No. 11. This was a particularly pleasing tessellation. I don’t think I’d seen it before.
Sky and Water
Metamorphosis II. I saw Metamorphosis III, which is even longer, in Rome in 2014.
Rippled Surface
Puddle
Three Worlds. I’m pretty sure this was hanging in my tenth/twelfth grade math teacher’s classroom.
Hand with Reflecting Sphere
Three Spheres II. This was my absolute favorite in this exhibition. It’s really mind-bending how Escher pulls the viewer into the image. I think I could do nothing but look at it and think about it for a solid month…. I used to prefer Hand with Reflecting Sphere, I think because the two non-reflective spheres in Three Spheres II struck me as superfluous, boring, and annoyingly asymmetrical. Now I see how much more depth and complexity this work has because of those two other spheres.
Reptiles. I think I was exposed to this one in a math class in elementary school. It could have been second grade, or fifth or sixth.
Bond of Union. I think some kid at my elementary school had this on a t-shirt.
This was one of the “graphic design” pieces on display. I think it was a custom greeting card.
I’m short! I think there was an optical illusion room like this at SciTrek in Atlanta.
Okay, now I’m tall!
Mobius Strip II (aka Ants). A classic, but not one of my favorites.
The woodblock for Concentric Rings, with a hole drilled in it.
This text explains the hole.
Three Spheres I. I’ve never liked this one. I think one of my teachers had it on the wall.
Other World (aka Another World). I’m pretty sure this was on the wall in my ninth grade math classroom. I wanted to like this one, but couldn’t manage it, perhaps because of the bird people or the fact that the moon surface is in two planes.
A destroyed lithograph block. If they had to destroy it at all, I wish they’d been more precise about it.
Relativity. I think I still have the cheap poster I bought of this one in college. It’s a favorite. I have a book with a Lego version on the cover.
High and Low
Waterfall. I bought a poster of this one too, but I never liked it as much as I liked Relativity.
Perspective Japonaise no. 398
Perspective Japonaise no. 381
Tetrahedral Planetoide. Not one I was familiar with.
Order and Chaos
Order and Chaos II
Drawing Hands
Snakes. I like the snake aspect of this better than the fractal aspect. And, speaking of snakes…
Regular Division of the Plane with Snakes, No. 36.
aka… SNAKES ON A PLANE!!!
HAHAHAHA!
Marathon. (Inspired by Escher, not actually by Escher.)
“We adore chaos because we love to produce order.”
—M.C. Escher
The wall at the entrance/exit to the exhibit.
Three Worlds?
So glad we went!