Gustav Vigeland was born in Mandal in southern Norway 11 April 1869 and died in Oslo 12 March 1943. His funeral was held in Vestre krematorium in Oslo 19 March, and his cinerary urn was, according to his wishes, placed in the small circular tower in his home at Frogner. The same building opened as the Vigeland Museum in 1947.
Gustav Vigeland is important in Norwegian art history. His artistic work contributed to promote the position of sculpture in his home country. Vigeland's monumental sculpture park at Frogner in Oslo, the Vigeland Park, is the world's largest sculpture park accomplished by one single artist.
Vigeland park is situated in the district of Oslo called Frogner. This large park is a home for 227 granite and bronze sculptures by Norway's celebrated sculptor Gusrav Vigeland. Gusrav Vigeland was born on 11th of April 1869 in Mandal, a small coastal town of Southern Norway. His father was a master carpenter in Norway.
This park is built on 30 hectare (75acre) land.
Gusrav Vigeland studied in Oslo, Copenhagen, Paris and Italy. He got a scholarship to study gothic art in France for one year.
"Wheel of Life" connects men , women and children through happiness, sadness, disappointment, anger and fear. It shows the depth of human life.
Most of the sculptures were created in between 1926-1942.
Gustav Vigeland has written on an undated drawing that "He who is once bitten by love's snake, never heal"
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Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) is a Norwegian sculptor whose work portrays the full range of the human life cycle and the wonderful diversity of intimate relationships among men, women and children of all ages—truly the family of humankind.
I’ve long known Vigeland’s sculpture in photographs, but until this fall had never seen any in person. Very little of it has left Norway, partly due to an extraordinary contract Vigeland made with the city of Oslo in 1921. He was given a new and capacious studio and home near the center of the city, and in exchange, he agreed to bequeath to Oslo all works in his possession as well as all original models of future sculptures. He lived and worked there from 1924 until his death in 1943. Over that enormously productive 20 years, with Vigeland’s design and direction, grew an 80-acre sculpture park and museum entirely devoted to his work.
The sheer scope of Vigeland’s creative accomplishment is astonishing. The park contains 192 sculptures in granite and bronze, with more than 600 figures. The museum—housed in the building originally erected as studio and home—includes some 1600 sculptures, 12,000 drawings and 400 woodcuts.
Vigeland designed the park in the likeness of a classical European formal garden: two long and wide gravel walk ways set perpendicularly to each other. Sculptures are grouped largely on one axis, gathered along a bridge, around a large fountain, and leading up stone steps to the tall, visually arresting centerpiece, Vigeland’s “monolith,” a column of 121 intertwined naked figures rising to a height of over 17 meters.
In the warmer months of temperate Oslo weather the formality of the garden is softened and enlivened by the green of great maple trees lining the walkways, flowing water, ivy climbing stone walls, and a profusion of flowering plants. In late autumn, the time of our visit, the effect was more stark than lovely. Profoundly embodied feelings of the pairs and groups of adults and children contrast sharply with their gray, monumental surround.
Some of that contrasting effect—unclothed intimacy in formal setting—is surely a deliberate part of Vigeland’s design. The scale of his human figures is larger than life size, their limbs and expressions deliberately stylized, heightening both drama and ambiguity.
John R. Boettiger
Vikersund, Norway
November 2005
http://www.reckonings.net/photos/vigelandphotos/index.html
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Gustav Vigeland has a special place in many hearts in his home country and particularly in the city of Oslo.
There in 1921 the sculptor was given a building by the city from which he would work and live for over twenty painstaking years.
He left behind him a remarkable sculpture park which serves as a testament both to the artist himself and the political and cultural renaissance of Norway.
Yet the park itself arose from a dispute. The City of Oslo wanted to build a library. Unfortunately the position of the new library just happened to be on the site of Vigeland’s home. A lengthy dispute was eventually settled with the promise of a new home and workspace. In return Vigeland committed himself to something quite extraordinary. All of his work from there on in would be donated to the city. He was, while meticulous, prolific – perhaps Oslo got more than it originally bargained for.
As a result of this extraordinary contract between Vigeland and Oslo very little of his work has ever left Norway. Yet if you only need one reason to visit the country – and there are many more – then his sculpture park might be just that excuse that you need.
It was certainly no small undertaking. Eventually, by the time of Vigeland’s death in 1943 the park, which covers over 300 thousand square meters contained over two hundred sculptures by the artist. A contemporary and friend of Rodin he experimented with modern forms of renaissance and ancient artwork.
His primary inspiration was the relationship between the two sexes, between the old and the young, between family members and the inexorable journey towards death which need not be an end in itself. His studio in Nobels gate is close to Frogner Park (which is now mostly known as Vigeland Park). His most famous work, the Monolith, is the culmination of his life’s work – 121 figures struggle to reach the pinnacle of the sculpture.
There is also a deep understanding here of both the conflict and the comfort which human relationships bring. The intrinsic duality of our connection with family and society is everywhere.
Vigeland’s work reveals the deep desolation which he experienced intensely all the way through his adult life. The notion of death recurs in many of his works, and his representations vary from melancholy and wretchedness to deep fondness and elation for its embrace.
Yet the park as a whole is much more about life and its journeys albeit inexorably married to death. Each group and individual sculpture represents one aspect or a specific stage in life – it is the journey of everyman represented in stone and bronze. The nudity of the figures is, of course, symbolically intentional. Nature and sculpture are united in a representation of humanity. These sculptures have no shame and are unafraid of facing their own mortality.
No park would be complete without a fountain and Vigeland provides Oslo with a massive fabrication of 60 bronze reliefs. Here we see children to skeletons who are held aloft in the sturdy arms of giant trees. The implication is that nature is cyclical and that death brings forth new life.
Vigeland also designed the layout of the park and he did so to mirror a classical formal garden design. This consists of two long walk ways which are set perpendicular to each other. Even the gates are a marvel.
There are contrasts implied and deliberate here. Human nature at its most terrible stands side by side with unquestioning love. A formal park setting containing so many naked larger than life figures is one which heightens the drama of the place – and its ambiguities. The nakedness can discomfit. In 2007 the city awoke to the bewildering site of each and every sculpture’s exposed parts covered by strips of black paper.
The sculptures are grouped on a single axis for the viewer’s ease and lead to the incredible centerpiece, the monolith. This amazing spectacle of a column rises to over 17 meters and consists of 121 bare and intertwined figures. The monolith totem elevates (literally) the whole circle of life message that the park conveys so fluently. Its thirty six figures illustrate the entire sequence of human life.
Although the contents of the park cover a period of over twenty years Vigeland’s creative achievement is one that can still provoke astonishment. This was not simply an obsession, but a magnificent one.
The
highlight of our Norway trip for me was the visit at the Vigeland Sculpture Park
and Museum.
We started
out at the Vigeland Musuem. On the second floor of the museum was Vigeland’s
apartment.
We paid a
little bit extra, so we could get a guided tour of the apartment!
Since his
death, the museum has preserved all of his belongings and has the apartment set
up exactly as he left it. Our tour guide told us that back when Vigeland
started working on the fountain (which later turned into a whole park), he made
a deal with the city of Oslo. The city would pay for a space for Vigeland to
work, all the supplies and assistants he needed, and an apartment above the
studio as long as he gave all of his works from there on out to the city of
Oslo. Pretty good deal for Vigeland, since a lot of the materials were very
expensive. A stairway that leads up from his library houses an urn with his ashes
and some reliefs he worked on before he died.
On the
ground floor is Vigeland’s studio which now houses some of his sculptures. In the museum we were able to see some of his
earlier works and some works that are very different from the pieces in the
park. There also is a room that shows
the process of making the pieces in the park. They started out being carved in
clay by Vigeland, before having assistants cast them in stone or bronze. It was
very tedious work as one would guess. The museum also has some of the original
sculptures that are in the park. One of my favourites was to see the fountain
sculpture up close. It creates a very different feeling being up close to it
and seeing how large it actually is. I also enjoyed seeing the monolith up
close. Since it is 17 meters tall, it is broken into three different sections
and you are able to see the details much better when you can get close to each
section of it.
After the
museum and apartment tour, we made our way to the park.
Now that it is beginning of the autumn, the leaves are changing colours and it makes me love the park that much more! The feel of the park has changed a little bit just with the trees and ivy changing colours. I especially liked going to the park at sunny autumn day.
