In an interview Ólöf Pálsdóttir described her sculpture, Son, as an image of Icelandic youth. She dedicated the work to her mother. A young man sits upon a plinth, arms outstretched, palms facing upwards. His head rests on a slender neck tilting slightly back. His body is tense yet serene, his arms open to the life that awaits him. Ólöf’s model was the Swedish sculptor and fellow student Erling Emil Torkelsen (1919-1987).
Son was Ólöf’s graduation piece from the Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen and it earned her the academy’s highest accolade, the gold medal, alongside a scholarship. The presentation of a gold medal by the academy was a two-hundred-year-old tradition and Ólöf was the first and only Icelandic woman ever to receive that prestigious honour.
This formal acknowledgement of her work was widely covered in the Danish media which praised Ólöf’s prodigious talent and skill as a sculptress, as well as the uniqueness and strength of her work. A few years later, Son was again exhibited in Denmark, this time as part of a group exhibition, and received similar plaudits: “The largest piece at the exhibition was the sculpture of a seated youth, Son. Although the work has already been exhibited here, the eye never tires of seeing such beauty and simplicity of form that conveys both strength and purity.”
The Ministry of Culture purchased the work in 1959 for The National Gallery of Iceland and had it cast in bronze.
Kristín G. Guðnadóttir
Art Historian
