Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd

Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd was a Swedish artist working manly in painting, sculpture and film. He studied with Fernand Léger in Paris 1951 and was a professor of painting at The Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm 1965-1969. In 1974 he was a guest professor at Minneapolis School of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1986 he was awarded the Prince Eugen Medal for painting.

Reuterswärd was not true to any movement, medium, or style. He created geometric abstract paintings, conceptual works, film and sculpture. Reuterswärd is perhaps most well known for a sculpture of a revolver with a knotted barrel that has become a symbol of anti-violence, called Non violence, on display outside the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City. Versions of the work are also on view in Berlin, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Lund, Borås, Caen and Kirchberg.