Fascinated by optical phenomena and in an attempt to explore the limits of painting, painters have long been creating picture puzzles, shifting perspectives, and composite pictures-ambiguous images whose various levels of meaning depend entirely on the observer's point of view. It is this multifarious tradition to which this richly illustrated picture book is dedicated, beginning with the season pictures by Giuseppe Arcimboldo to Indian and Persian miniatures of imaginary anthropomorphic landscapes, and finally to works by the great masters of Surrealism Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí. Thus, the Catalan painter-genius came up with no less than six strata of perception for his work The Endless Enigma, in which parts of the picture merge into ever new scenarios depending on the individual area the viewer focuses on. This unique presentation of ambiguous pictures taken from different cultures and periods reveals the enormous complexity of this artistic phenomenon, underlining the meaning of the artistic method. The book does not only appeal to experts in the field but to any curious lover of pictures with a penchant for seeing and discovering.(English edition available ISBN 3-7757-1283-6) Exhibition Schedule: museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf February 22 - June 9, 2003