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1966 · oil on canvas
Unframed: 97.5 x 195 cm (38 3/8 x 76 3/4 in.)
Cleveland Museum of Art

Olle Baertling was a Swedish abstract painter and pioneer of geometric abstraction in Scandinavia. Working primarily in the postwar period, he developed a distinctive vocabulary of angular, interlocking forms and vibrant color relationships that rejected both figuration and the gestural abstraction dominant in his era. His compositions emphasize the optical and spatial effects of geometric precision, often arranged in dynamic diagonal configurations. Baertling's rigorous formal investigations positioned him as a significant but understudied figure in the development of European constructivism and color field practice.
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