Anton Olsvang studied at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts in Moscow and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. The key feature of his art is the recycling of discarded objects and industrial waste. His typical work method is the appropriation of found objects, photographs, objects of use, as in his view, these bear the characteristic traits of living culture and the subconscious of the society, and can be used by the artist as the subject of his work, much like an ethnographer or archaeologist would. This practice can be traced in the work of various artists from the 1960s, and it is a crucial metaphor used by a number of Moscow Conceptualists, like Ilya Kabakov. At the same time, Olsvang makes an effort to reduce the role of the artist to the minimum, so his exhibited artworks are equivalent to the material they were made of.
Recycled materials, like the two sheets in Ludwig Museum’s collection, are the requisites of human culture, made at a specific time and space, and thus to Olsvang, they carry the spirit of that age. Their use as objects of art serves as an aid for posterity to understand the culture and changing historical contexts.