From the museum website, 24 September 2008
“Bring your brain along to an art exhibition,” is how the Danish brain researcher Ann-E. Knudsen begins her article in the M.C. Escher exhibition catalogue at Gl. Holtegaard.
This is an out-of-the-ordinary art exhibition as well as a unique opportunity to see over 80 original works by the famous Dutch artist M.C. Escher (1898-1972). Escher’s works are known throughout the world. Children of the 1970s have grown up with reproductions of hands that draw each other, men that go up and down stairs without ever getting anywhere, or endless patterns of interlocking figures. Escher challenges our traditional modes of perception – the brain is cheated, and what one thinks one sees proves on closer inspection to be something entirely different. The brain has to work overtime, and this is something that rouses our curiosity.
Researchers and academics – especially within the natural sciences – have for many years found inspiration in Escher’s works and made use of them as metaphors for complex theoretical concepts. More recently, computer technology has further developed his universe, recreating in the virtual world his endless mosaics and impossible constructions.
M.C. Escher’s images open up the possibility of combining the communication of art and science in a way that appeals to both the imagination and curiosity. In connection with the exhibition, Gl. Holtegaard has developed a presentation programme that will enable people of all ages to get a great deal out of exploring this encounter between art and science.
The exhibition is the result of a collaboration with The M.C. Escher Foundation in the Netherlands, which has placed its fantastic collection at our disposal for the project.
Support
Nordea Danmark-fonden
Konsul George Jorck og Hustru Emma Jorck’s Fond
Augustinus Fonden