Iconic works by Dutch artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972), including a pair of hands drawing themselves and sh morphing into birds, became well known – from museum exhibitions worldwide to 1970s college dorm rooms – and continue

to mesmerize. Woodcuts, lithographs, mezzotints, and drawings delve deeper into both the literal and impossible worlds Escher created over a career spanning five decades. Drawn from the collection of Herakleidon Museum, Athens, Greece, Reality and Illusion features early figure drawings, lesser-known book illustrations, detailed Italian landscapes, the tessellations for which Escher became famous, and examples of his signature architectural fantasies in which stairways seem to go both up and down.