Art News

The Akron Art Museum Has Extended Retrospective of M. C. Esher Works Until June 5th

artwork: M.C. Escher - "Eye", 1946 - Mezzotint and drypoint - 15 x 20 cm. - Copyright the M.C. Escher Company B.V. - Baarn - the Netherlands. On view at the "M.C. Escher: Impossible Realities" exhibition at the Akron Art Museum, extended until June 5th.


Akron, OH.- Surpassing attendance expectations, “M.C. Escher: Impossible Realities” has drawn record crowds to the Akron Art Museum. As the last of only two venues in the United States to show this once-in-a-lifetime loan exhibition from Athens, Greece, “Impossible Realities” has been drawing visitors to Akron from across the country. Escher fans came from as far away as Alaska, California and Washington, with most of the out-of-state visitors hailing from Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan and Illinois. Because of its overwhelming popularity, the museum, in an unprecedented move, is extending the exhibition’s closing date. Visitors now have until Sunday, June 5th to examine first-hand the masterworks of Maurits Cornelis Escher before the collection returns to Greece.

“Impossible Realities” surveys the breadth of Escher’s career from the 1920s to the 1960s. It showcases 130 of the artist’s finest works, starting with his early book plates, moving on to landscapes, tessellations and impossible worlds, and concluding with his very last print, “Snakes” (1969). Featured in the exhibition are seminal and instantly recognizable works such as “Drawing Hands” and “Reptiles”, as well as the extremely rare lithographic stone for the making of “Flatworms” and wood blocks, study drawings and single-color prints that illustrate Escher’s artistic process from concept to finished print. In addition, the Akron Art Museum is among a very few institutions to feature all eight of Escher’s mezzotints together, including “Eye”, one of the finest examples of the medium ever created.

artwork: M.C. Escher -"Reptiles", 1943 - Lithograph - 13 1/8" x 15 1/4" Copyright the M.C. Escher Company B.V. - Baarn the Netherlands

artwork: M.C. Escher - "Relativity", 1953 Lithograph - 11" x 11 ½". Copyright the M.C. Escher Company B.V. - Baarn - the Netherlands. - View until June 5thNot only has the exhibition been a huge hit with general museum goers, it’s been a must-see for area school children. Earlier in the exhibition’s schedule, Merrill Lynch Akron Complex generously subsidized additional gallery hours for groups of K-12 students in order to meet the overwhelming demand for school tours. The additional hours of operation allowed the museum to serve approximately 700 additional students on a waiting list, bringing the total anticipated number of students and teachers served during the Escher exhibition to more than 5,700!

When the museum first opened its doors on February 1, 1922 as the Akron Art Institute, it was located in two borrowed rooms in the basement of the public library. Volunteers were the sole staff until 1924, when city support made it possible to hire a professional director and again when the Great Depression ended City funding. It functioned (for much of that time in borrowed spaces) as an art center, offering classes and exhibiting mostly local artists. In 1937 the institute moved into its first permanent home, a historic mansion. Just four years later, a disastrous fire destroyed the building and much of the collection, threatening the institute’s existence. It arose after World War II, phoenix-like, from the ashes with a professional staff and a new focus: fine art and design. Strengthening the fine art collection became a goal, leading to the first purchases of art. To educate the general public and encourage collecting, major loan exhibitions were organized, including contemporary design shows that garnered national attention. A professional school emphasizing the design arts was established. In 1950, the institute moved back to where it had begun, the former public library, although this time it renovated and occupied the entire building. In the mid-1960s, a re-examination of the institute’s mission began. Over the next fifteen years, the institute was transformed from a school and art center into a museum. In October 1980 the importance of collecting as part of the mission was sealed by a name change. “Akron Art Institute” became “Akron Art Museum.” The following year the museum moved to another renovated historic downtown structure, the 1899 old post office building it still occupies.

Over the next quarter century, the museum has continued to enrich the lives of those in Northeast Ohio and beyond through modern art. Its nationally recognized collection was documented through the publication of collection catalogues. Three acquisitions endowments were created to ensure the collection’s future growth. A greatly enlarged general endowment provided increased, more stable funding, allowing the staff to undertake ambitious programs and exhibitions with national and even international impact. In 2007, its eighty-fifth year, the museum more than tripled in size with the opening of the new John S. and James L. Knight Building, which adjoins the 1899 building. Spanning three centuries, like the museum’s collection, together they symbolize the museum’s dual role as preserver of the past and herald of the future. Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.akronartmuseum.org