Two hundred sculptures by one man, all naked, all free, in the middle of a public park — and the angry toddler.
Gustav Vigeland spent from 1924 until his death in 1943 making the sculptures in this park, and the city of Oslo paid for all of it.
The deal was extraordinary: Vigeland gave the municipality every work he would ever produce, plus his drawings and models, and in exchange the city gave him a studio, a salary, a foundry and the park. He designed the layout, the gates, the lampposts and the bridge as well as the figures.
There are around 200 sculptures in bronze, granite and wrought iron, holding more than 600 figures. It is the largest sculpture installation by a single artist anywhere in the world, it is free, and it never closes.
What is in it
The Bridge — 58 bronze figures along a 100-metre span, at the start of the axis. Men, women, children, singly and in groups, in every relation from tenderness to violence.
The Angry Boy — Sinnataggen, a small bronze toddler mid-tantrum, one fist clenched, stamping. He is the most famous object in Norway, his left hand is polished gold by the number of people who hold it, and he has been stolen twice.
The Fountain — a bronze basin held up by six men, surrounded by twenty tree groups showing a human life from infancy to death, and a mosaic labyrinth in the paving around it.
The Monolith — the centrepiece. A single block of granite 17 metres high, carved with 121 intertwined human figures climbing over each other towards the top. Three stonemasons worked on it from 1929 to 1943. It stands on a raised platform surrounded by 36 granite groups.
The Wheel of Life at the far end — a ring of four adults and three children, and Vigeland’s summary of the whole scheme.
What it is about
Human life, from birth to death, with nothing else in it — no gods, no kings, no allegory, no clothes.
That is the whole subject. The figures are nude not for eroticism but because Vigeland wanted them stripped of period, class and nationality, and he was extremely consistent about it for twenty years.
Whether it is profound or overbearing is a matter of taste, and Oslo contains both opinions. It is unarguably unlike anything else.
The awkward part
Vigeland’s position during the occupation has been examined. He accepted the Nazi-installed authorities’ continued support for his project and his relationship with the regime was, at minimum, accommodating. He died in 1943.
Norway has not removed the park and has not entirely resolved the question, and the Vigeland Museum beside it addresses it rather than ignoring it.
The Vigeland Museum
His studio and home, at the edge of the park, holding the plaster models, the drawings and the woodcuts, and his ashes in the tower. It charges a small fee and it is the best way to understand how the granite pieces were actually made.
Practical
Free, unfenced, open at all hours, all year.
Tram 12 to Vigelandsparken, or a twenty-five minute walk from the palace.
The wider Frognerparken around it is an ordinary and very good city park with a lido, a rose garden and playing fields, and in summer half of Oslo is lying on the grass in it.
