After the war a part of Ólöf’s family reunited in Copenhagen. However, during her studies in the Academy (1949-1955) Ólöf lived on her own.
Ólöf and Jens in Copenhagen.
Ólöf and the family friend and renowned opera singer, Stefan Islandi.
Casanova Bar, Copenhagen, 1948. F.r. Erling Emil Torkelsen (Torkel), sculptor/furniture designer and school friend/model for Ólöf in the Academy, Ólöf Palsdottir, sculptor, Sven Wilhelmsen, painter/architect and school friend of Ólöf, Ásthildur Björnsdóttir, close relative of Ólöf and wife of the great modernist poet Steinn Steinarr, Steinn Steinarr, unknown.
The Academy
The Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. Ólöf studied sculpture there from 1949-1955.
Courtyard of the Academy.
Ólöf with fellow students in the courtyard of the Academy of Art in Copenhagen.
Ólöf in the back-garden of the Academy.
A plaster cast of Ragna by Ólöf Pálsdóttir being moved with in the Academy.
Erling Emil Torkelsen (Torkel) sculpting his bust of Ólöf in the back garden of the Academy.
Torkel og Svend Wiig Hansen, sculptor and painter and also a good friend of Ólöf.
Lóla (Ólöf Pálsdóttir) sculpted by Erling Emil Torkelsen.
Ólöf was particularly inspired by the lectures of the painter Axel Jörgensen.
Lóla by Honer, 1951.
School Dance
Masked ball at the Academy.
At Home
Ólöf at home in her bedsit in Copenhagen.
On the table lies a copy of The Call of Art by Franz Werfel.
On the wall Judith rests her arm on the decapitated head of Holofernes.
Ólöf and Torkel.
F.r. Hans Hansen, Faroese painter, Ólöf, Torkel, unknown.
Egypt and Greece 1954
Ólöf studied in Egypt during great social upheaval in the history of Egypt. The corrupt king Faraouk was deposed in 1952 in a revolution lead by Gamal Abdel Nasser. In 1954, the year Ólöf was in Egypt, the Brotherhood of Muslims tried to assassinate Nasser. But the attempt only solidified the power of Nasser as he moved to crush the Brotherhood and further deposed President Mohamed Naguib. After that ensued Nasser’s historical period of power until his death in 1970.
On the banks of the Nile in Luxor, Egypt, 1954.
“This photo reminds me of the little house that professor Wissa Wassef lent me in Egypt. It was in Luxor, the old “Thebes”, on the bank of the Nile, Upper Egypt. What ecstasy!” Olof may, or may not, be referring to the time in 1965 when she went back to Egypt for a few months.
From l. Vigdís Kristjánsdóttir, weaver, unknown, Ólöf Pálsdóttir. Greece, 1954.
Vigdís Kristjánsdóttir. Greece.
Book Excerpts and Cuttings from Danish and Icelandic Press
