{"id":68084,"date":"2026-07-27T10:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T09:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=68084"},"modified":"2026-07-27T11:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:14:07","slug":"in-photos-m-c-escher-the-exhibition-at-somerset-house-london-good-but-not-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/in-photos-m-c-escher-the-exhibition-at-somerset-house-london-good-but-not-great\/","title":{"rendered":"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London: good, but not great"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-01.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Dutch artist M.C. Escher is famed for drawing cunning optical illusions, logic-defying buildings, and endless intricate patterns, and you can see some of them up close at Somerset House in London until 6th Sept 2026.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-02.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s over 150 original works on display, and some of the woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints were absolutely stunning.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-03.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-04.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is simply fabulous!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-05.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-06.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The exhibition alluded to his optical illusions with a couple of Instagrammable rooms for people who like that kind of thing.<\/p>\n<p>At times it felt like the exhibition couldn&#8217;t decide whether to just show off the work or turn itself into some sort of &#8216;Escher Experience.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>For us, it ended up falling between two stools, and tried to cover too much ground and please too many people.<\/p>\n<p>That said, it&#8217;s still a very interesting way to spend an hour or so.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-07.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.net\/forums\/threads\/london-art-exhibitions-installations-and-events-photos-and-chat.374789\/page-13#post-19558205\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">poster on urban75<\/a> commented:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I went to the M.C Escher exhibition a couple weeks ago and was a bit underwhelmed. I had some criticisms of the Exhibition itself such as: an overlong introductory video saying he was a genius without saying why, and the number of instagram friendly slots where you could put yourself into an Escher etching\/Escher experience etc.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But ultimately I was left with a feeling that he&#8217;s not as interesting an artist as I thought as there&#8217;s a lot of repetition of a narrow set of themes, and overall something quite cold or expressionless about his work despite the technical brilliance of it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-08.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-09.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The floor was covered on one of his repeating patterns.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-10.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-11.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-12.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-13.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/pics\/escher-london-14.jpg\" alt=\"In photos: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition at Somerset House, London\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>More info<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.somersethouse.org.uk\/whats-on\/mc-escher-the-exhibition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">M.C. Escher. The Exhibition<\/a><br \/>\nSomerset House<br \/>\nStrand, London, WC2R 1LA<\/p>\n<p>Runs until 6th Sept 2026<br \/>\nFree admission<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d2483.1173897830217!2d-0.11972828724781244!3d51.51106231031741!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x487604b5f3c46771%3A0x439ecc438a580a1!2sSomerset%20House!5e0!3m2!1sen!2suk!4v1686926530209!5m2!1sen!2suk\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4>Join the discussion<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.urban75.net\/forums\/threads\/london-art-exhibitions-installations-and-events-photos-and-chat.374789\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">London art exhibitions, installations and events \u2013 photos and chat\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dutch artist M.C. Escher is famed for drawing cunning optical illusions, logic-defying buildings, and endless intricate patterns, and you can see some of them up close at Somerset House in &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1765,194,456,17,193],"tags":[199,34,1422,10,1195,137],"class_list":["post-68084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-london-features","category-news","category-photos","category-places","tag-architecture","tag-art","tag-exhibition","tag-london","tag-photos","tag-somerset-house"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/escher-london-01.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-hI8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68084"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68134,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68084\/revisions\/68134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}