Olle Baertling (1911–1981) is unique in Swedish art, although this never won him much in the way of adulation during his lifetime. At least, not in Sweden. In his art, Olle Baertling latched on to a continental, visionary thought tradition rooted in Bauhaus and the Russian avant-garde: the idea of an art that reached beyond beauty and decoration, one not intended to be integrated into society so much as alter it at its core, in both its visible aspects and its hidden ones. It’s not too surprising that, in retrospect, his art has come to be associated with the great upheavals of his age. Baertling’s painting is non-figurative, non-expressive, and non-communicative, and he was a vigorous proponent of the “open form” in art. It’s as though his semaphore-like, disorienting, parabolic lines had more in common with space research than with any aesthetic concerns.

One important person who noticed his art was the highly esteemed gallery owner Denise René, who opened a contemporary art gallery in Paris in 1945. Living up to her belief that “art must invent new paths in order to exist”, she was the first to exhibit Francis Picabia, Piet Mondrian, Jean Tinguely, and Sonia Delaunay. And Olle Baertling. They produced a series of exhibitions together, which served as an important source of inspiration for the artist, as well as, significantly, an opportunity for his works to be shown on the international scene.

In 1956, Baertling painted his impactful IOAM, with its sophisticated (and unusual, for him) colour combination of red, yellow, black, and cream. Baertling was far from a mystic when it came to colour; he sought colours that would in every way distance his works from reality, as their content was the very rejection of the same. The colours claim space and exist in it. There’s no mistaking the impact of the piece. A sharp triangle, with one vertex pointing diagonally down to the right, and the other diagonally up to the left. A countermovement is offered by the black triangle, which thus contributes to establishing a divine balance, despite the sharp angles and colours.

Naturally, Olle Baertling, like many artists before him, took a keen interest in space exploration and the nature of the universe. His ability to imagine and visualise Einstein’s theories regarding the curvature of space-time allowed him to preclude the space expeditions that would be undertaken in the coming decades.