Vigeland

In 1921 the City of Oslo took noted sculptor Gustav Vigeland's home and studio to build a new library.  He made a deal with the city in which he received a larger structure near Frogner Park in return for the donation of a large body of work and the installation of a massive outdoor array of work in the park.  Starting in 1924, the area was gradually transformed, finally being completed in 1949, six years after Vigeland's death.  I will be doing a special series on this park in October, 

but we start today's set with two men on a bridge.

 

Father

A lot of the male figures in Vigeland's massive installation are obvious father figures, 

many shown with babies, as above.  One is even juggling several babies while dropkicking 

another.  I'm saving him for the next series, though, so you'll need to be patient.

 

Granite

This is one of the granite sculptures surrounding a monolith 

at the center of the park.  More about that in a bit.

 

Gate

Even the gate panels at one of the park entrances feature nude men.

 

Monolith

This monolith of human figures tops a small hill in Frogner Park, and it is one of the most frequently commented upon elements of the Vigeland installation.  Having only seen photos up to this point, I can't really argue with that, but I find the bronzes more interesting myself.  A close up is below:

 

Black and White

I had to include this black and white photo of an imposing bronze.

I only wish it were full length.

 

Group

Whoever took this photo managed to get four interesting sculptures in one shot.

 

Nordic in Granite

This man sculpted in granite has a more expected Nordic appearance

than many of Vigeland's more beefy, rounded figures.

 

Engaged?

Some observers have said that certain elements of the overall sculpture park seem to be interacting with each other.  Our last figure seems as though he might be engaged with someone to his left.

 

Vatican

This undated photo of a statue in the Vatican Museum was made on one of Mr. Higgs forays into Europe.  Although we will of course focus on his male nude work, he also photographed fine architecture, industrial sites, natural scenes, and G-rated portraits, both solo and group.

 

1853

In the very early days of photography, some clever folks photographed art, particularly sculpture.  No worries about a statue staying still for those impossibly long exposures.  It is a relief of men hunting wild boar, and one of the hunters has been injured.  Both the photographer and the original sculptor are unknown.  Disclosure:  I removed severe yellowing from this one.

 

Photography Lessons

This is one of the opening pages for an instructional piece Anthony Guyther did.

 

Memorial

Richard Scheibe sculpted this in 1950 as part of a memorial to Friedrich Ebert, 

president of the Weimar Republic.  Herr Ebert did not look like the statue at all.

 

Vienna One More Time

It's been almost a year and a half since I visited Vienna, and I still haven't posted all my art photos.  So today we will look at some more.  Unless otherwise noted, all are from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, and we start with a carving of Adam in boxwood by Conrad Meit from 1535.  He's still holding the legendary apple and looks like Harpo Marx without the trenchcoat.

 

Streetside

My friend and I spotted these relief sculptures while walking down a street

 in Vienna's government district.  They were, appropriately enough,

 on the exterior of the Ministry of Labor and Commerce.

 

Mercury

Here we have a rear view of Gregor van der Schardt's version of Mercury, ca. 1565.

 

Hugo Lederer

I've posted bronze sculptures by Hugo Lederer before, and they always have fine male forms.  This one is called The Runners, and it graced a park entrance in Berlin from 1929 until 1943 when the friggin Nazis melted it down to make weapons.  Although he was not persecuted by the Nazis, his friendship with "degenerate" artists kept him from getting commissions after 1933.  The Runners was actually a type the Nazis generally liked, but they destroyed it anyway.

 

Uli Nimptsch

The Good Samaritan by Uli Nimptsch from 1960 stands outside a hospital in Birmingham, UK.

 

Italy Day

A few weeks ago a new viewer from Italy named Leo reached out to me via the blog contact form, 

and we had an enjoyable exchange of messages.  That inspired today's series, a walk 

through the male nude history of things Italian.  We start with the Second 

Century Roman version of Silenus and the Infant Dionysus.

Grazie, Leo for inspiring todays set.

 

Castor or Pollux

Michaelangelo sculpted this statue of Castor . . . or is it Pollux? . . . outside 

the Capitoline Museum in Rome.  Nobody is really sure which is which.