Album from exhibition in Contemporary Art Centre in Moscow in 1993.

If the term "artistic research" can be used at all, it is one that should justifiably be used in connection with the artistic output of Oscar Reutersvard. His work unifies the intuitive, sensual and informal style of an artist, and the systematic, comprehensive and logical approach of a scientist exploring a new world - a world that seems not to exist, a world of the impossible. We are severely restricted in our thinking and perceiving by so many turns of habit adapting us to our everyday, ordinary environment that we become convinced that our familiar way of seeing the world is the only way to see it - a typical "everyday megalomania". The drawings of Reutersvard unveil, before our startled eyes, a completely new world - the world of objects and Spatial sensations we previously did not even consider to be imaginable. Drawing - i.e. representing the three-dimensional space on a flat surface - is a deception. We are so used to take this deception for granted that we seldom notice its true, illusory nature. Not until someone deliberately and expressively draws something looking spatially does this pictorial cheat- ing reach our consciousness. The flat representation of Space is In a way an obvious and simple problem. Historically, various methods (called "perspectives") of resolving this problem were fashionable at different times. And more often than not, the creative aims of an artist have been at variance with the rigid perspective scheme of his time. It often led to violations of the rules - the examples might be found, e.g., in medieval and Byzantine icons and in some Persian miniatures - when something like impossible figures occured. These im possibilities, being a byproduct of the creative process, not the goal in themselves, were later often considered to be awkward distortions or merely drawing errors, especially when after the Renaissance the rigid "scientific" perspective was for long established as “The Perspective” - the only “correct” way to represent space in pictures, condemning any other possible perspective scheme as faulty. Modern artists often try to break free of the strict perspective rules by swinging to the other extreme of no perspective at all - only flatness of a flat picture. But between these two positions there is a vast range of other possibilities. Some of these forgotten lands are explored by Reutersvard. Since 1934 when he constructed an impossible triangle (later rediscovered and published in 1958, by L.S. and R. Penrose), he industriously, with great consistency and patience pursued the idea of impossible figures. He discovered hundreds and thou- sands of them, finding examples for various classes and families of figures, and exploring most of the principles and determinants causing figures to become impossible. In his "piles of beams" he plays with the figure-ground impossibility and also with a sort of object-object contradiction (when a certain area seems to belong simultaneously to two otherwise distinct ob- jects). He explores to the extreme the principle of multibar (or "impossible polygon") figures - from the impossible triangle and its numerous variants (among others, ones with thick beams or planks pierced by one or two thin rods) to fabulously knotted, self-closing spatial "spirals" twisting your eyes almost painfully. He explores the level-ambiguity in his impossible Stairs from which he sometimes builds whole grandiose staircases that might have been intended for palaces haunted by the Ghost of Space itself. And another of his favorite themes - in fact, a sort of a signature, as no one else struck upon this idea - the "windows" opening into space, with a lattice of crossing slots ( ...ats..), miraculously bending and swirling between each other, although still remaining only straight, rectangular beams.

Although several other artists (and the number is growing!) use the "impossible effects" in their works, Reutersvard remains still the unsurpassed leader of this conquest of the impossible, by virtue of his comprehensiveness combined with clarity and economy of his expression. To discard any secondary effects interfering with the main purpose, he sticks to the axonometric (or Japanese) perspective in his drawings. In this system, parallel lines remain parallel - as opposed to converging at the vanishing points in normal perspective - and the dimensions of objects do not change with distance. The common, central perspective distorts the dimensions of objects and parallelism of lines - it would unnecessarily blur the clarity of spatial constructions pursued by Reutersvard. Drawing is a deception, but a drawing of an impossible figure is a deception of the second power. First, we think we see three dimensions on a flat picture; second, we are made to think that the object depicted is spatially impossible. In fact, all these impossible figures are possible! Why cannot we readily see this, and what, finally, is the point? As it was stated at the beginning - the effect is due to our restrictive habits. We are used to certain methods of interpretation of images, and to certain kinds of objects and their structures. But these drawings do have possible spatial interpretations too - there exist other, possible spatial objects (although often having quite queer structures) which look exactly as these do (when appropriately viewed). Firmly gripped by our rigid modes of perception and thought, we are hardly able to find these possible interpretations - we would rather continue to see impossible when faced with the non-standard situation...

Once more, the skill of an artist can unveil things we have not imagined, things that go beyond our mental horizons limited by our habits. Try to understand the impossible - try to relax your binding thought patterns and become open to the strange and ambiguous, to the mysterious excitement and discomfort of the unknown - it will widen your understanding and comprehension of reality, of the world, of yourself. In this task you will benefit from the guidance offered you by these eerie signposts arranged by Reutersvard along the paths of his impossible lands.

Zenon Kulpa