M.C. Escher: Infinite Dimensions

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898–1972) was a Dutch graphic artist celebrated for prints that fuse rigorous mathematics with visual illusion — tessellating animals that morph into one another, impossible staircases, and mirror-like spherical reflections that bend ordinary perspective. Though untrained in mathematics, he drew heavily on crystallography, hyperbolic geometry, and the tile patterns he studied at the Alhambra in Spain, which made his work a perennial favorite for audiences at the intersection of art and science. In Boston, the Museum of Science mounted "M.C. Escher: Infinite Dimensions," an exhibition of original Escher prints. The show leaned into Escher's crossover appeal to scientists and mathematicians by inviting figures like Yo-Yo Ma and astronaut Nicole Stott to write about individual prints — fitting for an artist whose puzzles have long fascinated math and science audiences.