Ib Spang Olsen - The Grand Old Man in the Art of Children’s Drawings in Denmark

By : Eva Glistrup

To mark the 75th birthday of the illustrator Ib Spang Olsen, Eva Glistrup paints a picture of the great master’s work.

It was as long ago as 1948 that Ib Spang Olsen established his reputation as an illustrator in Fem små troldebørn (Five Little Troll Children) to verses by Halfdan Rasmussen. This was to be the beginning of a long and epoch-making collaboration - it is impossible to say Halfdan Rasmussen without adding Ib Spang Olsen in the same breath. The nonsense verses familiar to everyone in Denmark are illustrated in such a way that readers and connoisseurs alike will find it difficult to decide where Rasmussen ends and Olsen begins. And in later collections such as Tante Andante (Auntie Andante) (1985) and Onkel Karfunkel (Uncle Carbuncle) (1988), every page is rounded whole at the same time it contains a wealth of detail - with humour as the determining factor. The illustrator adds to the verse some dimensions that give it more life and intensity.

A great illustrator and a fine stylist

Danish nature in all its moods, with its storms and its rain and its gales and quiet summer evenings by the marsh are essential features of Ib Spang Olsen’s pictures. Mosekonens bryg (The Marsh Wife’s Brew) (1967) which shows that in addition to being a great illustrator Ib Spang Olsen is also a great linguistic artist, has become a classic - with a touch of mysticism being added to nature.

Ib Spang Olsen has not only portrayed landscape and weather, but also the city in many of his illustrated books - and also on posters and cover pages. In the picture books Kiosken på torvet (The Kiosk on the Square) (1964) and Lille dreng fra Østerbro (Little Boy from Østerbro) (1980), which has also been filmed, he has preserved the memory of some dignified old districts in Copenhagen, not least that of the once so common beautiful kiosks with all their carvings.

Hans Christian Andersen in Japanese and legends of the Norse gods

One of love, enthusiasm and respect. Thus Ib Spang Olsen defines his relationship to Hans Christian Andersen. A Japanese edition of Andersen’s collected Fairy tales with Ib Spang Olsen’s illustrations is quite remarkable - so big and expensive that it has never even found its way to the Danish market. The splendid illustrations to The Goblin at the Grocer’s (1980) show Ib Spang Olsen as a profound interpreter of Hans Christian Andersen. The spirit inherent in the text is reproduced in light-and-shade, and the double page illustration stands is both monumental and at the same time endowed with a certain lightness.

New versions in text and picture of the myths about the old Norse gods likewise reveal the exuberant artist. New versions of the old stories in a vibrant language and with powerful illustrations: grandiose landscapes, broad-shouldered, rubicund, long-bearded men and old women. Pictures of groups of four-square human figures lying in wait alternate with close-ups of individuals.

A master of imaginative story-telling

Ib Spang Olsen has drawn, written and illustrated children’s books, many of which have become classics for several generations of children, and in addition he has produced television and radio programmes for children, and illustrations, book covers and book illustrations for adults. As an illustrator he has continued a fine Danish tradition created in the middle and at the end of the last century. Ib Spang Olsen is first and foremost the master of fantasy and imaginative stories - and yet in the midst of all the fantastic scenes there is nevertheless still an element of reality. A genuine Danish illustrator - who has received great recognition and established an international reputation.

Ib Spang Olsen has received many tokens of recognition; particular mention can be made of the international Hans Christian Andersen medal in 1972 and the Ministry of Culture’s Prize for Illustrators in 1980. He is moreover the only artist to have been awarded the Ministry of Culture’s Children’s Book Prize no fewer than three times: in 1963, 1964 and 1967.

Translated by W. Glyn Jones