Wilhelmus Marinus Retera was a Dutch artist born in The Hague on 27 February 1890. He was the son of the sculptor W.M. Retera (1858–1930). He trained at the School of Applied Arts in Amsterdam, initially focusing on sculpture before broadening his interests to architecture and design. From 1916 he taught at the Academy in The Hague, and he published numerous books on applied arts throughout his career. Retera worked across an exceptionally wide range of disciplines, practising as an architect, interior and furniture designer, textile and wallpaper designer, painter, draughtsman, etcher, and sculptor.
His early work from around 1920 shows the influence of the Futurists and Amsterdam Luminists, while Surrealism became a strong presence in his later output. He was a close friend of both Willem van Konijnenburg, whose influence is visible in several of his works, and Gerrit Rietveld, whose De Stijl principles informed Retera's approach to design and architecture.
