The Oslo Sculpture Park is a grandiose creation by Gustav Vigeland. Illustrated magazine by Vladimir Dergachev “Landscapes of Life Vigeland Sculpture Park Norway
Gustav Vigeland- one of the most famous sculptors in Norway. His main “brainchild” is the sculpture park in Oslo, located in the west of the city, in the Frogner district. A large number of sculptures depicting various states of human activity are collected here. Running, jumping, dancing, hugging, wrestling - all this and much more was of interest to the artist.
After Norway gained independence, Gustav Vigeland was hailed as one of the most talented sculptors of our time. Despite this, it was decided to demolish the house where the artist lived in 1921 in order to build a city library in its place. After lengthy legal proceedings, the authorities provided the sculptor with new premises, but in exchange for this he had to donate to the city all his subsequent works: sculptures, drawings, engravings and models.
Gustav Vigeland moved to a new workshop in the Frogner district in 1924. He was struck by the idea of creating an open-air exhibition of his works, and gradually he expanded the collection of his sculpture park. In total, he created 212 bronze and granite sculptures, which is why Vigeland is often called the most prolific master of Norway.
Taking his first steps in art, Vigeland sought inspiration in the works of his contemporary, Auguste Rodin, and was also interested in the works of the Renaissance. Gustav Vigeland's own sculptures depict various relationships between men and women. You can also see the different stages of a child’s growth – from baby to teenager. Most often, the viewer sees realistic paintings, but some of them can have a symbolic meaning, for example, a sculpture depicting a strong man fighting off a horde of babies.
All sculptures were designed by Gustav Vigeland personally; he made life-size models from clay. Several more talented craftsmen were involved in stone carving and bronze casting, since it was physically impossible to cope with this on their own. In addition, the master himself designed the main gate, a fountain decorated with 60 statues, and a bridge on which 58 statues represent various human emotions (in particular, the famous “Angry Kid” is located on the bridge).
Construction of the park lasted more than 30 years, but the brilliant sculptor was not destined to see it completed. All work was completed in 1950, 7 years after the death of Gustav Vigeland. The visiting card of the park is the Monolith sculpture - a 14-meter pillar decorated with 121 statues. All the figures are connected to each other, they represent an embrace. “Monolith” symbolizes man’s desire for spiritual knowledge.
My first crush was a boy taking out a splinter. Bronze. Italy. Reproduction in a pocket book "On the roads of Rome"
Then, in the same preschool years, a trip to the museum, a bashful acquaintance with a plaster copy painted to look like a noble dark metal.
In my teenage years, a crazy erection in the halls of Greek and Roman sculpture...
At the same time, an acquaintance with the process of... Well, modeling took place. Sculpture classes at an art school.
As I remember now, on one of the walls in a bas-relief, the old man Daedalus, wrapped in a tunic, conjures over the wings of a young naked Icarus, and on the other, the tense buttocks and muscular back of the Bacchus bagpiper wink. On the shelf is the severed head of John the Baptist, and next to it is the round, champignon-shaped head of Socrates.
Hands are in clay... if you wet it too much, it can seep through your fingers, and if you dry it out, you can remove shavings in a stack until they harden. You move your fingers, and thin gray gloves made of sculptural clay, and it has a gray-greenish color, and when it dries it turns blue, covered with a network of cracks, rough folds, and crumbles.
I love sculpture. I am in awe of her. But love is not always a reflection of ability.
Because the fact that, with average success in sculpting, I entered the sculpture department of the College of Art is the asinine stubbornness of a rejected admirer...
Probably, the fact that I turned to the path of architecture was a latent desire to follow a parcel path with sculpture, since both there and here have a common task - to work with volume and space.
blah blah blah
Actually this post is about something else.
I wanted to write about the Gustav Vigeland Sculpture Garden, which is located in Oslo and is a famous landmark of the city, a masterpiece of sculptural art, a unique park ensemble, and simply a hymn to humanity.
Gustav was born in 1869, on a farm in the south of Norway called Vigeland, into a family of artisans and peasants. His father was a carpenter and woodcarver, and young Gustav, having shown ability for this work, was sent to Oslo to study literacy and carving. His roots played a role in the fact that notes of Scandinavian folk art appeared in Gustav's art.
Well, yes, I think I can write a lot and for a long time, so I’ll move on from the young Gustav, a carver, to a recognized master of sculpture known outside of Norway.
According to the original design, the fountain was supposed to stand in front of the Parliament building.
When the fountain model was presented, it caused a response from the public, critics, and city authorities, who, in general, did not refuse the sculptor to implement the project, but were also embarrassed by the location next to the Parliament of this group of naked bodies, in which there was no sense of youthfulness, smartness - beauty and pride of the nation. There is too much naturalism, lack of gloss and gloss, which are characteristic of the ceremonial symbols of the capital. Many did not understand the author’s ideas; there was quite a bit of caustic satire and sincere indignation.
And, as a result, the fountain was not erected on the square, which, as it turned out, was for the better, since the project was moved to another place - Frogner Park, and was significantly expanded and complicated...
Gustav Vigeland worked on the implementation of the Garden of People for forty years, until 1943, the year of his death, during the dark days of the Nazi occupation.
Then I fall silent, leaving you to look at the photos.
The fountain is only part of the grandiose “Garden of People” complex, which includes bridges, a monumental stele, ceremonial gates, and much more, which will be discussed another time.
To be continued.
I've never heard of this park. Therefore, only after I left there, I started looking for information on the Internet. It's a pity that I didn't know all this in advance. In the center of Oslo there is a unique park with 227 sculptures of 640 naked people of all ages, which reflect absolutely all facets of human life. The sculptures were created by Gustav Vigeland - just think about it - from 1907 to 1942! I wonder how the park appeared - In 1921, the city decided to demolish the house where the artist lived and build a library on this site. After long negotiations, the city provided Vigeland with a new building and the grounds of Frogner Park where he could work and live; in return, the sculptor promised to donate all his subsequent works to the city.
In his Garden, Vigeland intended to tell neither more nor less about human life. About birth and death. About ripening and fading. About love and friendship. About parents and children.
Very briefly about the main figures. The park begins with a 100 m long "Bridge of Life" with 58 sculptures reflecting the "Human Temperament". There is also a wheel of love showing the union of a man and a woman. Here is the symbol of Oslo - the “Angry Boy”, which is depicted on all postcards with views of Oslo. I'll show it under the cut. And I liked the girl who stands opposite the boy. She is so beautiful and no one takes pictures near her :)
Behind the bridge there is a "Children's Playground" - 8 figures of children playing and even a fetus...
Then a fountain with people and skeletons, as if showing what lies beyond death. new life is coming. And geese and ducks swim in the fountain :)
The highest point of the park is Monolith. From a single piece of granite, a master and 14-year-old apprentices carved 121 sculptures rising to the heavens. This idea was meant as a person's desire to become closer to the spiritual and divine. The ensemble depicts a feeling of intimacy as the human figures embrace each other and are led towards salvation.
And the park ends with the “Wheel of Life” - the bodies of four adults and a child are intertwined.
People are constantly relaxing in the park. It is even allowed to barbecue on disposable barbecues :)
In 2007, unknown persons covered all the intimate parts of the sculpture with black paper.
The boy was already fed up with the tourists, who wiped off his hand and other parts of his body. He got angry :)
View from the park
Bridge of Life
... and this is my girl
This composition impressed me very much. I called it “A Man Abandoning His Children.” These are either abandoned children or children who wanted to be born and the man forced them to be killed unborn. I found this fact from the life of Vageland. For the sake of his 17-year-old mistress, he breaks up with Laura Andersen, the only close person with whom he had two children. Before parting, Gustav undertakes to support the offspring financially and never see them. He will fulfill all his obligations. With a new life partner, also a model, the relationship will end after 20 years. They had no children. In 1938, a daughter appeared from his cohabitation with an undividedly devoted young housekeeper. In Norway, everyone knew about the children he left behind.
In Lem's Solaris, abandoned children materialize from dreams. The naive Cosmic Mind does not understand at first that this is causing pain to Sartorius and sweet, kind Snout. Or are they not yet born, as in “The Blue Bird”? Yes, for me these are the unborn...
Around the bowl of the Fountain are not just bronze trees, but ash trees, and it is no coincidence that they are located so close to the water.
The Yggdrasil tree, the World Ash, is the fundamental principle of the Universe among the ancient Scandinavians. Its roots are watered by the Norns, the goddesses of fate. Someone will see in this the Protestant Vigeland’s belief in predestination, without which the Tree, and with it Life, would have withered away.
The biblical tree of the knowledge of good and evil also did not grow out of nowhere. The old dispute about what exactly flows through the tree in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: “thought” or “mice”, or squirrel, seems to have long been resolved in favor of the latter. If the pundits would remember that the squirrel Ratatosk (Gnattooth) scurries around Yggdrasil and carries gossip from the eagle above to the dragon below and back, then there would be no dispute, everything is so obvious. Moreover, in the 12th century Igor did not forget that his ancestors were noble Varangians, therefore skalds and poets. This squirrel was familiar to him and his army, like the bun to us. Instead of squirrels, Vigeland planted people in the branches.
We were expecting a child, but two appeared
And this son has grown up
Monolith
My lovely. The pinnacle of tenderness...
Wheel of Life
...and I
...well that's enough for me :)
The mother and the children simply fascinated me. The image of a mother who joyfully devoted herself to her children is close to those still afloat from the “current generation of Soviet people.” Here we always pause, grunt sadly and look at each other knowingly, tenderness in our eyes.
A child putting his hand into the mouth of a wolf. In fact, an instructive episode from the life of the aces - the gods. The wolf cub Fernis, taken for fun, grew and grew and grew into a dangerous wolf. The Aesir decided to outwit Fernis. Under the guise of a test of strength, they threw a chain on him. But the gray one broke the chain. And so many times. Then they turned to the gnomes. They wove a particularly strong, high-quality chain from the roots of mountains, the noise of cat steps, the beards of women, the saliva of birds, the voices of fish and the tendons of bears. Since then, cats' steps are silent, women have no beards, mountains have no roots, birds have saliva, bears have sinews, and fish have no voice. When the new chain was brought, Fernis sensed something was wrong. He did not refuse the test, but demanded that the god of war Tyr put his hand into his mouth, like a pledge. It was not possible to break the chain, and I had to bite off my hand. The bas-relief clearly shows that the wolf will not harm the child. There is no deceit here. They're just playing.
Valentina Balakireva (photo), Vladimir Dergachev
http://pics.livejournal.com/vobche/pic/000hrztz
The largest in Europe the famous Vigeland Sculpture Park (Garden) located in the west of Oslo, part of the large Frogner Park. Created Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland(1969 - 1943), one of the most prolific in the world since the era of Michelangelo. With the help of symbolism and naturalism, the author sought to tell with his sculptures about human life from birth to death, from maturation to withering. The dominant feature of the Sculpture Garden is a 17-meter, 180-ton Monolith resembling a phallus. Vigeland did not give names to his creations.
Gustav was born on a farm whose name sounds like Vigeland, in a small seaside town in southern Norway, into a family of artisans and peasants. In his youth he was sent to Oslo, where he studied literacy and woodcarving at an art school. But after the sudden death of his father, he returned to his small homeland to help his family.
Vigeland returned to Oslo in 1888 with the intention of becoming a professional sculptor. From 1891 to 1896 he traveled throughout Europe, visiting Copenhagen, Paris, Berlin and Florence. In the French capital, he often visited Rodin's workshop. Contact with medieval Italian art of the Renaissance had an impact on his subsequent work. Returning to Oslo, he received an abandoned studio from the city authorities to work on. The first exhibitions of Vigeland's works took place in Norway in 1894-1896. In 1905, Vigeland was recognized as the most talented Norwegian sculptor and began to receive high fees for making statues and busts of famous compatriots such as playwright Henrik Ibsen.
In 1921, Oslo authorities demolished the house and the architect's studio to build a city library. After lengthy litigation, Vigeland received the new building in exchange for all his subsequent works, including sculptures, drawings, prints and models. In 1924, Vigeland moved to a new studio located in the vicinity of Frogner Park. The most famous Norwegian sculpture park was created by him in 1907-1942 on an area of 30 hectares and contains 227 sculptural groups reflecting the range of human relationships. Vigeland worked until his death in 1943. His ashes are still kept in the local bell tower, and the studio has become a museum where various works of the artist are displayed, along with plaster models of the Vigeland Park sculptures.
The main theme of the park is “the human condition”. Most of the statues depict people engaged in various activities (running, wrestling, dancing, hugging, etc.). Each of the statues conveys the emotions of human relationships. Often, deep philosophical overtones make it difficult to perceive his compositions.
Main entrance to the park 
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Local residents actively use the park for games, outdoor recreation and picnics. 
Plateau "Monolith". The stone platform serves as the basis for the central structure of the park - the Monolith obelisk, carved by a sculptor and a team of stone cutters from a huge solid block. Thirty-six sculptural groups of people are located on a hill around the “Monolith” and symbolize the “circle of life.”
Construction of the massive monument began in 1924. In the fall of 1927, a block of granite weighing several hundred tons was delivered to the park from a stone quarry. The translation of the figures from the plaster model began in 1929 and took three stone carvers about 14 years. At Christmas 1944, the public (180 thousand visitors) was for the first time allowed to admire the “Monolith,” which embodies the sculptor’s idea - to show man’s desire to become closer to the spiritual and divine.
The height of the Monolith is 17.3 meters, of which 14 meters are human bodies, climbing, intertwining, pushing each other, clinging to each other. The higher, the more small children whom people push upward (phallic symbol of eternal life and generational change). Around the Monolith, on a raised platform formed from steps, there are 36 sculptural groups carved from granite and depicting various human relationships 
Back in 1906, the sculptor presented the city authorities with a sketch of a fountain to be installed in the center of Oslo - 6 male figures holding a bowl surrounded by 20 bronze sculptural groups with bas-reliefs along the perimeter. Then he added up to 60 sculptural groups, which made it impossible to install a fountain in the city center in front of the Norwegian Storting (parliament) building.
The fountain consists of figures of people of different ages and skeletons on the branches of giant trees. The idea of the composition is that death is followed by new life. The bottom of the fountain is lined with a mosaic of white and black granite. Vigeland worked on this monument from 1906 to 1943. 
The bowl, supported by six men, symbolizes the heaviness of human life on earth. 
The figures of people among the trees, forming a single whole with them, reflect the inextricable connection between man and nature, the cyclical nature of all its manifestations from birth to death. 
“Tree”, which is hugged by an old man, mortally tired of life. 
Rose garden 
Behind the Fountain and the rose garden begins a hundred-meter bridge, on which there are 58 bronze sculptures by Gustav Vigeland, which convey various states of the “Human Temperament”. 
The most famous baby from the Sculpture Garden. The wild boy has become one of the hallmarks of Oslo, like Munch’s “The Scream”. 
Photo by Vladimir Dergachev
Food for thought. Art requires female inspiration. The sculptor, like a real artist, was loving, was fond of girls and had connections with most of his models. In the end, he married one of them, Laura Andersen, only after the birth of his second child, but with the condition of a subsequent divorce. He did not communicate with the children, but paid child support for their maintenance. Gustav's second long-term relationship was 17-year-old Inga Syversten, with whom he lived for 19 years, constantly cheating on her. Then another seventeen year old girl. The fourth long-term relationship with 18-year-old Ingrid Wilberg, 32 years younger than Gustav, lasted 15 years and also ended in a new hobby. Each of the women endured his infidelities, stubbornness, temper and bouts of depression.
What is Vigeland Sculpture Park famous for? Where is it located and how to get to the sculpture park from the center of Oslo or from the Central Station.
Usually the creations of creative people - sculptors, artists, musicians - are kept in special institutions. Moreover, most works of art end up in museums only after the death of their creators. But there are always exceptions when creative people personally take part in the creation of museums and the placement of exhibitions in them. There is such a park in the capital of Norway, in the city of Oslo, created by the famous sculptor Gustav Vigeland for his creations. The open-air gallery is called the Vigeland Sculpture Park.
Features of Vigeland Park in Oslo
Vigeland at the beginning of the 20th century. obtained permission from the city authorities to create an open-air park-museum. He was allocated a plot of land whose area was thirty-five hectares. Construction began in 1907 and was finally completed forty-three years later. Although the installation of the sculptures was completed already in 1942. In total, the park contains two hundred and twenty-seven works by the artist, made of bronze and granite. When creating sculptures, Vigeland focused on the inner state of man, which was reflected in his works. All creations depict human life from birth to death.
Great attention is paid to conveying the state of people while jogging, dancing, and fighting for the lives of children. Each sculpture has a deep philosophical meaning, striking with its symbolism and realism.
The entrance to the Vigeland Sculpture Park is made in the form of five gates connected by granite and iron. At the same gate there are two gates for young visitors and two special checkpoints. Security guards are constantly on duty at checkpoints to monitor guests' stay in the park.
The gate decorating the central entrance to the Vigeland Sculpture Park
The culmination of a walk through the park is a sculptural stele!
Sights of the sculpture park
Among the many Vigeland sculptures in the park, there are works that can be called iconic. These include the compositional creation “Monolith”, the sculpture of an angry boy, and the “Tree of Life” fountain. The art museum built in the park also attracts the attention of visitors. It contains paintings by the sculptor's brother, E. Vigeland. Another attraction of the park was the sculptor's bridge, which is one hundred meters long and fifteen meters wide. It starts at the main gate and leads to the fountain. More than fifty different sculptures were placed on both sides of the bridge. Interestingly, the bridge was opened before other parts of the park.
The bridge leads visitors to a small playground for children, which is surrounded by bronze statues. Each of the sculptures depicts children of different ages playing. The central figure of the composition was the sculpture of a fetus.
Vigeland Park on the map of Oslo
Official address: Alfaset 3. Industrivei 1, 0668 Oslo, Norway
Vigeland Sculpture Park - how to get there
The unusual Gustav Vigeland Park is located near the center of Oslo. In most cases, you can simply walk, it will take 15-20 minutes. But you can also use public transport.
If you are in the waterfront area, the nearest metro station to you is Aker Brygge. If Operatunnelen is closer to you, then it is better to walk a couple of minutes to Aker brygge. Next 5 stops and you're on Brugata- metro station where the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo is located. From one of the central stations Radhuset you can also quickly reach Brugata: 3 stops or 8 minutes.
If you are in the area of Oslo Central Station, then you can definitely walk to Vigeland Park, 5-7 minutes and you are there.
Where to stay: hotels near Vigeland Park
We have found popular and inexpensive hotels in the Vigeland Park area, all that remains is to decide - is it worth booking them? Is this place convenient? Our answer is 100% yes!
Firstly, in the immediate vicinity of the Central Railway Station, you can go in any direction. At least Stavanger, at least - all the attractions are at your disposal. Secondly, the area is close to the center (you can walk to the embankment), but not so close that you have to overpay for it 😉
