Valgerður Hafstað

Valgerður Hafstað (1 June 1930 – 9 March 2011) was an Icelandic painter who worked with acrylic, oil and watercolours. She was educated at the Academy of Free and Mercantile Art in Copenhagen, the School of Arts and Crafts in Reykjavík and Paris' Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Valgerður worked on mineral windows and mosaics and produced several privately owned paintings.

Biography On 1 June 1930, Valgerður was born in Vík in the South Constituency. She was the daughter of Árni Hafstað and Ingibjörg Sigurðardóttir. She was educated in art at the Academy of Free and Mercantile Art in Copenhagen before matriculated to the School of Arts and Crafts in Reykjavík. She studied mosaic and painting at the Academy, Valgerður moved into a home near the French capital of Paris the following year and relocated to New York City in 1974. From 1981, she worked at the Reykjavík Art Museum Kjarvalsstaðir. Morgunblaðið noted her paintings appeared to be quite similar to those in European and that she continued to employ her previous technique instead of being influenced by art in the country she resided in for some of her adult life, the United States.