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Reutersvärd Oscar (1915-2002)
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Oscar Reutersvärd (1915–2002) was a Swedish artist, art historian, and professor renowned as the "father of the impossible figure" for his pioneering work in creating optical illusions and geometrically impossible objects that challenge spatial perception and logic.
Born on 29 November 1915 in Stockholm, Reutersvärd trained in the arts under Michael Katz, a Russian professor from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, and later studied art history, becoming a lecturer at Stockholm University from 1953 and a professor of art history and theory at Lund University from 1964 to 1981. In 1950, he received a grant to study with Fernand Léger in Paris; in 1953, he organized the exhibition L'art Suédois – 1913-1953, while also working as a draftsman, painter, graphic artist, designer, and sculptor who advocated for abstract art in Sweden. A founder and fellow of the International Association of Art Critics since 1950, he contributed to scholarly journals such as the American Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and published art-theoretical works.
Reutersvärd's most defining contributions began in his youth, when he invented the first impossible triangle in 1934 at age 18, rendered as a series of cubes in parallel perspective, predating similar concepts by mathematicians Roger and Lionel Penrose by over two decades. He followed this in 1937 with an impossible staircase, and over his lifetime produced more than 2,500 such figures—exclusively in isometric or "Japanese" perspective using block forms—exploring visual paradoxes like the "Window in the Floor" series and representations of European flags. These works, which he termed "perspective japonaise" from the 1960s onward, influenced optical art, mathematics, and cognitive science, though M.C. Escher drew from the Penroses' figures rather than Reutersvärd's directly.
His legacy includes a 1982 book of his drawings, a 1991 retrospective exhibition in Stockholm featuring 150 sculptures, and Swedish postage stamps issued in 1982 honoring his impossible figures, cementing his role in popularizing these mind-bending forms. Reutersvärd passed away on February 2, 2002, leaving a profound impact on exhibitions of optical illusions and geometric art worldwide.