Starting this coming 16 November, Palazzo Mazzetti in Asti will host a major exhibition dedicated to Escher, the creator of impossible worlds and geometries, and one of the 20 th – century artists most beloved by the general public around the world.

From 16 November 2024 to 11 May 2025, the exhibition rooms in Palazzo Mazzetti in Asti will display the works of Escher, the artistic genius and visionary, and a favourite with the general public around the planet. Iconic among art lovers but also among mathematicians, designers, and graphic artists, his unique creations combine art with the universe of numbers, science with nature, and reality with imagination, generating fanciful inventions and paradoxes both magical and marked by strong scientific rigour Born in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands in 1898, Maurits Cornelis Escher developed his own unique and unmistakable style thanks to his extraordinary ability to transport visitors into imaginary and seemingly impossible worlds. In his creations, the great Dutch master, who lived and travelled in Italy between the two World Wars, brings together countless themes and suggestions: from geometric theorems to mathematical insights, from philosophical reflections to logical paradoxes. His unmistakable works, which also influenced the world of design and advertising, raise a challenge to perception and are unique on the landscape of art history for all time. In Asti, through the display of more than 100 works accompanied by educational analysis, videos, and immersive rooms, the exhibition presents Escher’s entire artistic path, from his beginnings to his travels in Italy, as well as the various techniques that engaged him throughout his life and made him a unique artist. Amid tessellations, metamorphoses, structures of space, and geometrical paradoxes, and including the works that, beginning in the 1950s, raised his popularity so much that we can speak of a full-blown “Eschermania” today, the exhibition displays the Dutch artist’s most well-known works, like Hand with Reflecting Sphere (1935), Bond of Union (1956), Metamorphosis II (1939), Day and Night (1938), his famed Emblemata series, and so many more.

‟I feel truly fortunate to begin my term in office at the leadership of Asti’s museums,” said Francesco Antonio Lepore, the new President of Fondazione Asti Musei, “with the exhibition of an artist who, through his genius, and relying exclusively on his graphic mastery and mathematical skills, was able to explore those impossible universes that now appear closer to us thanks to algorithms and artificial intelligence. Escher is always current, and for nearly a century his works have been bewitching icons of the infinite possibilities of interaction between art and science.” As Livio Negro, President of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Asti, declared: ‟ Fondazione Asti Musei is glad to offer you a journey through the mind of an artist capable of bringing art, mathematics, and philosophy together in a unique and original way. I am certain that the Escher exhibition will not only enrich the city’s cultural offerings by creating connections and stimulating a dynamic dialogue between art, science, and community, but it will actively involve us all. Not least, the exhibition is part of a successful itinerary that has brought to Asti exhibitions dedicated to Chagall, Monet, the Impressionists in Normandy, the Macchiaioli, Giovanni Boldini, and Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit.”

The ESCHER exhibition, with the contribution granted by the Directorate General of Education, Research, and Cultural Institutes of the Ministry of Culture, has been organized by Fondazione Asti Musei, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Asti, the Region of Piedmont, and the Municipality of Asti, with the contribution of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, in collaboration with Arthemisia, the M.C. Escher Foundation and Maurits, and with the patronage of the Province of Asti. The exhibition is supported by its sponsor il Gruppo Cassa di Risparmio di Asti and was curated by Federico Giudiceandrea, one of the world’s leading Escher experts.