Part puzzle-maker, part fabulist architect, part anatomist of his own imagination, Escher began by looking backward as well as forward in his art. But, as is evident in a retrospective of his work now ...

M.C. Escher (1898–1972), an artist of enigmas, has this larger enigma about him: He is inexplicably overrated or inexplicably underappreciated, depending on how you look at him. Like one of his ...