Watercolour on Japanese rice paper, Perspective Japonaise No 264, Oscar Reutersvärd

Description

Watercolour on Japanese rice paper, Perspective Japonaise No 264, Oscar Reutersvärd

Oscar Reutersvärd, Perspective Japonaise No 264
Watercolour on Japanese rice paper
The work is titled and signed by the artist
Dimensions 75/55
Unframed work

Oscar Reutersvärd lived from 1915 to 2002. He was a Swedish graphic artist who pioneered the art of 3D drawing in 1934. He created impossible figures, which may initially appear feasible but cannot be physically constructed. At first glance, they seem normal, but they cannot be reproduced in three dimensions because the perspective is distorted in some way, thereby violating the laws of trigonometry. He is sometimes referred to as the father of the impossible figure. Reutersvärd studied at several art schools. Among others, he was a student of Otte Sköld and Otto G Carlsund in Stockholm and Paris, and studied under Fernand Léger. In 1953, he became an associate professor at Stockholm University, and then professor of art history and art theory at Lund University in 1964. In total, Reutersvärd produced more than 2,500 different drawings. He created not only pictures but also sculptures in which chains and other objects head towards the sky. He created his figures in Indian ink on Japanese rice paper, drawing freehand without a ruler or any other mechanical device. He usually employed Japanese perspective, in which all parallel lines remain parallel and do not meet at vanishing points. The unsteady lines created during a ten-hour train journey between Stockholm and Lund are visible in some of his pictures. The drawings were often coloured with chalk. His works are exhibited in numerous museums. Reutersvärd’s achievements were honoured in 1982 with a series of three Swedish postage stamps. The stamps were created by Czesław Słania based on Reutersvärd’s watercolours.

The work is in its original condition.