Masters of Deception

An incredible array of playful optical illusions found in Art for those who enjoy being deceived in a delightful and surprising way.

M. C. Escher and Salvador Dali were champions at the art of visual manipulation, puzzling and delighting worldwide audiences with timeless illusions. In this 320-page, breathtaking collection, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Douglas R. Hofstadter explains their dazzling trickery which, along with hundreds of remarkable paintings from eighteen other artists, make it the definitive book to optical illusions.

Dali’s painting “Old Couple or Musician” (1930) is just one the astonishing creations by these “Masters of Deception”: from afar and at a glance, it depicts what seems to be an old woman and man looking at each other but, when observed a tad closer, seems to represent a young man playing guitar with a woman sitting opposite him instead. Escher’s impossible buildings in “Belvedere” (1958), and “Waterfall” (1961) are also featured here. The incredible array of playful art includes Shigeo Fukuda’s “Mary Poppins”, Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s fruit-faced Vertumnus.