Oscar Reutersvärd (2021)

2 days ago

M.C. Escher created three iconic prints based on impossible figures: Belvedere (cube), Waterfall (triangle), and Ascending and Descending (staircase), with the latter two inspired by the Penroses.
Oscar Reutersvärd is considered the father of impossible figures, inventing the impossible triangle in 1934 at age 18 and the impossible staircase in 1937, predating the Penroses' publications.
Reutersvärd used consistent isometric projection in his thousands of impossible figures, drawing them plainly without extra elements, unlike Escher who embedded them in realistic settings.
Historical precedents for impossible figures include William Hogarth's 1754 engraving and Giovanni Battista Piranesi's Carceri d'Invenzione, but Reutersvärd was the first to focus on them systematically.
Reutersvärd had a multifaceted career as an artist, art historian, professor, and sculptor, championing abstract art in Sweden and contributing to art theory.
His work gained recognition later, with Swedish Post stamps in 1982 and books by Bruno Ernst in the 1980s highlighting his contributions, though he remained less globally known than Escher.
Reutersvärd's influence extends to modern games like Echochrome and Monument Valley, which use isometric perspectives and impossible figures, and to artists like Rinus Roelofs who explores similar mathematical shapes.

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