Ib Spang Olsen

However, he also wrote his own children's books, such as the whimsical tale of the seasons, The Marsh Crone's Brew. Olsen drew for newspapers, magazines, books, posters, television, and comics. For his lasting contribution as a children's illustrator Olsen received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1972.

Ib Spang Olsen studied at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. The recorded working language is Danish. Work by Ib Spang Olsen is recorded in the collections of Print Collection. Distinctions recorded are Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration, The Native Danish Language Award, Ministry of Culture's children book prize and Statens Kunstfonds hædersydelse.

Olsen was born in Østerbro, Copenhagen. He had a modest upbringing but his memories of his childhood remained and became inspirations for his humorous and grotesque pencil drawings of everyday life. Olsen died in Copenhagen following a short illness on 15 January 2012, at the age of 90. His memorial service was held at the Marienborg Chapel on 23 January. He was survived by his wife, the artist Nulle Øigaard, and by his four children: Tine and Tune from his first marriage, filmmaker Lasse Spang Olsen and Martin Spang Olsen from his marriage to Øigaard. Lasse began a documentary film about his father in 2005 entitled Det er med hjertet man ser.

He first worked as a cartoonist in 1942 for the Hjemmets Søndag section of the Social-Demokraten, a trade union newspaper (now the Aktuelt). He then enrolled in the Copenhagen Art Academy and the Graphic School, where he studied from 1945 to 1949. From 1952 to 1961 he taught at Bernadotteskolen. Throughout his career, he illustrated for newspapers, magazines, books, comics, and even television and posters. Olsen is known for his experimental forms and one of the artistic highlights is Det lille lokomotiv (The Little Train), which was published in 1954. While his drawings usually included pencil, Olsen used different drawing techniques such as zincography and heliographics, which made it possible to print original drawings in book prints and offset. In 1982, Olsen also became the chairman of the Danish Ministry of Culture's working group about children and culture. He was also a member of the Academia Council, which is part of the Royal Danish Art Academy.