Eric H Olson created something completely unique in the world with his three-dimensional glass and plexiglass sculptures, so-called "optochromies", and he is considered one of Sweden's most prominent new constructivists, also through his oil paintings.

Towards the end of the 1940s, Olson developed a plane geometric painting in connection with contemporary international currents. It further led to his interest in art in public spaces and public commissions in collaboration with architects. His work further develops the constructivist legacy.

Olson is one of the few Swedish artists who has had an international impact. He began painting traditional landscapes, but after a trip to Paris in 1937, Eric became one of the pioneers of non-figurative painting.

Eric married the artist Inger Ekdahl in 1944. After her education at Grünewald's painting school 1944–1946 (and a period at Otte Sköld's painting school), the couple traveled to Zurich in 1947 and spent the next few years in northern Italy and exhibited in Verona. In the early 1950s, Eric and Inger traveled to Paris and exhibited at the Réalitées Novelles. The couple lived in Stockholm until 1977, when they moved to Malmö.

Erik H Olson's art is represented in a large number of museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Modern Museum in Stockholm, Norrköping Art Museum, Örebro County Museum, Kalmar Art Museum and Stockholm City Museum.