Vigeland Sculpture Park is a part of Frogner Park, located in Oslo, Norway, specifically, northwest of the city center. This is Oslo's number one attraction, a huge park with ponds, trees and lawns. The park covers an area of 80 acres and features 212 bronze and granite sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland. Vigeland personally sculpted every figure out of clay and individual craftsmen were contracted to fabricate the pieces into what they are today. These works of art reside along an axis divided into six sections: The Main Gate, The Bridge, The Children’s Playground, The Fountain, The Monolith Plateau and the Wheel of Life.
Gustav Vigeland worked for the city for 15 years making statues to fill the park. All the people depicted are naked, except for the statue he made of himself, which is fully-clothed! The statues are sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always beautiful. At the top of the park, there is a huge monolith of bodies, surrounded by circles of statues depicting the cycles of life, from babies to elderly. There are also gorgeous wrought iron gates both there and at the entrance to the park. It is an absolutely stunning place.
As you enter this huge park, way off in the distance you see the monolith. Close up shot of the fountain and steps to the monolith
The Bridge
Fifty-eight of the park's sculptures reside along the Bridge, a 328 ft. long, 49 ft. wide connection between the Main Gate and the Fountain. All are clad in bronze and contribute to the “Human Condition” theme of the park. Here visitors will find one of the parks more popular statues, Sinnataggen or, “the Little Angry Boy.” In 1940 the Bridge was the first part of the park to be opened to the public. Visitors could enjoy the sculptures while most of the park was still under construction.
Walking along the bridge, with gorgeous gardens beyond, you see these beautiful statues.
The most famous statue of all, the stomping, angry baby
At the highest point in the park lies the parks most popular attraction, The Monolith (Monolitten). The name derives from a Latin word which means "one" or "single" and "stone" implying the totem to be sculpted from one (mono) solid piece of stone (lith). Amazing....
Construction of the massive monument began in 1924 when Gustav Vigeland himself modeled it out of clay in his studio in Frogner. The design process took him ten months, and it is speculated that Vigeland had the help of a few sketches drafted in 1919. The model was then cast in plaster. In the autumn of 1927 a block of granite weighing several hundred tons was delivered to the park from a stone quarry in Halden. It was erected a year later and a wooden shed was built around it to keep out the elements. Vigeland’s plaster design was set up next to it to give reference to its sculptors. Transferring of the figures began in 1929 and took 3 stone carvers 14 years to accomplish.
On the Christmas of 1944 the public was allowed to admire The Monolith and 180,000 people crowded the wooden shed to get a close look at the creation. The shed was demolished shortly thereafter. The Monolith towers 46.32 ft. high and is comprised of 121 human figures rising toward heaven. This is meant to represent man’s desire to become closer with the spiritual and divine. It portrays a feeling of togetherness as the human figures embrace one another as they are carried toward salvation.
The Monolith, sculpted from a single piece of stone!
The Fountain
Originally designed to stand in front of Parliament (Eidsvolls Plass), the Fountain was fabricated from bronze and adorned with 60 individual bronze reliefs. Portraying children and skeletons in the arms of giant trees, the Fountain suggests that from death comes new life. On the ground surrounding the Fountain lies a mosaic laid in black and white granite. It took Vigeland a great deal of time to establish the monument: from 1906 to 1947.
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Other Facts about
the Statues..
Most of the statues depict people engaged in various typically human pursuits, all the figures are life-sized and life-like...naked and wrinkled...muscular and baggy. The reason he sculpted only nudes was to make his images universal, not bound in time or class by their clothes. You can find children, men and women holding on to each other, with all kinds of passions and moods. joy, laughter, pain, hatred. You can see couples in love strolling, figures running, wrestling, dancing, hugging, and holding hands. A bronze, enraged baby boy is stamping his foot and scrunching his face in fury.
However, Vigeland occasionally included some statues that are more abstract, and some defy understanding, such as the "Man attacked by Babies" statue, which shows an adult male, fighting off a horde of tiny babies.
Who was Gustav Vigeland?
He was the son of a master carpenter and descendant of a long line of farmers. Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) was brought up in a strictly religious environment. As a boy, he had shown exceptional ability as a woodcarver and when he was 15 he received an apprenticeship in Oslo. Vigeland soon realized that he was destined to be a sculptor. He carried out his works in a dilapidated studio. When it later became necessary to demolish this studio he entered into a series of agreements with the City council that provided him a new studio. In return left all his sculptures to the city.
It difficult to comprehend the tenderness between parent and child seen in so much of his work and his total abandonment of his own family. The City of Oslo built a residence and studio (now the Museum 5 minutes from the Park) for Vigeland. He lived there alone and left all his works to the City. Not a penny to wife and children. What's that about???
