Otto Torsten Andersson (6 June 1926, Östra Sallerup, Skåne – 30 May 2009, Hörby) was a Swedish modernist painter known for realistic depictions of abstract sculptures and for two-dimensional explorations of three-dimensional objects, with colours that seem laid over one another in a loose, offhand way. His work stands out in postwar Swedish art for its individual direction.
He trained at Otte Sköld's drawing school in Stockholm in 1945, then attended classes at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts from 1946 to 1950. In 1947 he also studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Early on he returned again and again to whether painting could be understood as a language. He felt out of step with the Swedish art scene of the 1940s, where, in his view, nearly everyone had borrowed or inherited a style. His eccentric blend of melancholy nature painting and constructivism, developed in the 1950s, met with little critical understanding, yet he soon gained a reputation as a painters' painter for following his own path away from mainstream modernism.
In 1960 he was made professor of arts in Stockholm, but after a personal conflict with the Academy he resigned in 1966 and returned to Skåne, where he lived for the rest of his life. His artistic career was effectively paused for about seven years. That break led to a series of sombre headstone paintings, including Min gravsten (2005). Andersson defended easel painting as an art form at a time when it seemed to be cracking. Lars Nittve, head of the Moderna Museet, described his process: of one hundred working drawings, ninety were destroyed. He died in Hörby in 2009.