Image: Escher in Het Paleis, The Hague. Photo: Gerrit Schreurs
Escher in Het Paleis in The Hague is presenting 'Escher & Islamic Art: 20 Perspectives' through 1 November 2026, with the exhibition’s focus on the inspiration M.C. Escher drew from Islamic geometry and architecture. The museum frames the show as a historical and contemporary dialogue, linking Escher’s lifelong fascination with tessellation, repetition and optical illusion to work by 20 contemporary artists and makers from a range of disciplines.
According to the museum, Escher’s encounter with Islamic architecture and mosaic patterns began after two visits to the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. The colors and patterns he saw there became a starting point for his sustained investigation into regular divisions of the plane, and the museum says those endlessly repeating motifs remained central to his drawings and prints for the rest of his life. The new exhibition places that legacy beside present-day work that also draws on Islamic cultural heritage.
The exhibition includes 30 works by 20 national and international artists. The participants named by the museum are Nasam Abboud & Yazan Maksoud, Karim Adduchi, Layla May Arthur, Amine Asselman, Dana Awartani, Fatima Barznge, Emin Batman, Hassan Hajjaj, Siddiqa Juma, Mous Lamrabat, Shehzil Malik, Farwa Moledina, Suleika Mueller, Leila Nazarian, Shirin Neshat, Mounir Raji and ism MASTOOR, Alfaz Sayed and Ishraq Zraikat. The museum notes that a large part of the international work is being shown in the Netherlands for the first time.
Escher in Het Paleis describes the project as a broad presentation of a visual language that is still relatively little seen in the Dutch museum field. The works, drawn from painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics, paper art, fashion and textile, are presented in relation to Escher’s own prints and graphic inventions. The museum’s stated curatorial aim is to search for connection within plural creativity, expressed in the phrase ‘unity in diversity’.
The museum’s accompanying digital tour expands the exhibition with texts for each work, available through Bloomberg Connects. Those entries are written to give more detail on the individual works, as well as the motifs and ideas of the artists, and can be read in the language selected by the user through the app’s translation function. The museum also points visitors to public attention the exhibition has received, including coverage in the Dutch press.
'Escher & Islamic Art: 20 Perspectives' runs at Escher in Het Paleis, Lange Voorhout 74 in The Hague, from 10 June to 1 November 2026. The museum’s regular opening hours are Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 17:00, with the ticket desk closing at 16:30, and it has also listed additional Monday openings during the summer holiday period.
