Gustav Vigland | The PhotoNaturalist

HUMANITY IN STONE: VIGELAND’S MASTERPIECE

VIGELAND’S PICE DE RESISTANCE—OSLO’s FROGNER PARK SCULPTURES

Two hundred?! Yes, actually 214 larger-than-life sculptures dot Oslo, Norway’s magnificent Frogner Park; in total over 750 human figures are portrayed. This is the work of Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943); a Norwegian sculptor; wrought iron gates, bronze statues, and the human-figure sculptures chiseled hammer blow by hammer blow over many years. It is the largest sculpture park in the world dedicated to one artist.

As a younger man, Vigeland traveled Europe looking for inspiration, and was especially moved by the work of Auguste Rodin, the French sculptor, and his human figures.

In 1921, after the city of Oslo needed to demolish his home to make way for a library, they gave Vigeland a new home in a beautiful location near Frogner Park. In exchange, Vigeland agreed to donate all his sculptures to the future Frogner Park installation. The project took 20 years to complete.

I first have to say that I’ve been to many urban parks in North American and Europe, but this is by far my favorite. A visual tour de force of the struggle of everyday humanity. No war heros here. No giants of industry, or philanthropy, or scientific discovery. Not here. Only the thoughtful vision of everlasting emotions and struggles, from birth to death, of all of us, the common people. And to he has stripped the trappings of class from the figures; no clothes, no jewelry, no idealization of the human body.

We all split up to explore the park separately; Bridget one way, the boys went another way, and my camera and I another.

“The Fountain” is a massive cauldron being held up by six massive men, all different ages, and they appear to be struggling mightily under the weight. Water flows over the sides of the bowl creating a curtain around the figures. It was originally supposed to be placed in front of the Norwegian Parliament, but those plans fell through. Does it symbolize the struggle of life, the pain and effort of making a living? Or??

And don’t miss the smaller bronze bas-relief insets. You could spend all day trying to interpret these bizarre but beautiful snippets.

Crown jewel of Vigeland’s sculptures is the 53-foot granite pillar of 121 entwined, writhing human figures; babies to nonagenarians and every stage of life in between. It is so hard-to-fathom how he even created this towering piece of sculpture. I’m going to look that up…Hold on, I’ll be back in a few minutes…

Okay, I’m back. Vigeland designed it but he did not carve it himself. It took 34 stone masons several years to complete.

Most of the sculptures are people doing everyday things, but sometimes Vigeland veers into the metaphoric, such as the wonderful sculpture of a man fending off a battalion of babies. Love it! You can read many things into this one sculpture…and that is the beauty of the park. Vigeland himself did not name the sculptures, and wisely refused to tag them with any interpretation. Each individual piece of his art can be interpreted in many ways, often personal to the person doing the pondering.