At an early stage the swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, born in 1934 freed himself from his local, conventionally narrow artistic life and sought to go beyond all conceivable boundaries, not only national ones. “Style is fraud,” he asserted, and constructed a range of different pseudonyms that gave him great freedom to work in the most diverse materials, forms of expression and styles.

Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd was unique in an age in which the avant-garde could also become routine. He was the exception who always stood for himself, in an international context as well.

At home, that is, in Stockholm, he was an odd and constant reminder of how fenced in the artistic beaten track actually was. Reuterswärd has consistently avoided groups, and not because it has not been possible to associate him with various artistic currents. Very early on, he focused on various aspects of performance art, which were performed almost without exception in the most lively manner by Reuterswärd himself.