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.

 

Rear view

Relatively few of the published photos from the park fearture 

rear views of the beefy men.  I'm glad this one did.

 

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.

 

Vigeland

Here we have a black and white photo that's a stray from my Vigeland collection.  There are a 

number of father and son sculptures in that park in Oslo, and this is one of the more benign ones.  

There are others where he is juggling the kids and even drop kicking one of them.

 

Vigeland

The sculptural entry in the art section is this piece from Oslo by Vigeland

that shows a burly grandfather giving his grandson a piggyback ride.

 

Scandinavia Day, Part 2 - Norway's Vigeland Sculptures

Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) was a Norwegian sculptor who is best known for the huge outdoor installation of nude humans at Frogner Park in Oslo.  His work has been compared to that of the Nazi Arno Breker, and I think that comparison is unfair, particularly given that Vigeland's human figures bear little or no resemblance to the so-called Aryan ideal.  Today, I will do my second series on his work, and you can click the label to see the earlier one.  His self portrait is above.

 

Smug or disapproving?

Frogner Park in Oslo is dotted with lakes, the natural result of the place having been built in a swamp.  A lot of the male statues (all nude) perched around the lakes show men in a variety of moods.  I can't tell if this guy is smug or if he disapproves of something.

 

Chemistry?

Vigeland was accused by some of being a Nazi sympathizer during the 1940-45 German 

occupation of Norway, something he privately denied, saying that he was simply friendly 

to some German soldiers who modeled for him.  (He died in 1943 and never got a chance to 

discuss his feelings about the Germans in a free and open environment.)  Regardless of 

what his politics were, it's not hard to find a homoerotic subtext to much of his 

Frogner Park work.  These two may even have some sort of chemistry going.  

 

Not happy

This guy looks unhappy about something.  In fact, his body language and facial expression both make me think he's pissed off.  At least there's no one handy to drop kick.  More about that later.

 

Ring man

I don't know what the ring symbolizes, but I like this piece a lot.  Vigeland died without ever explaining the meaning of all these statues, only giving them short, literally descriptive names such as "Angry Boy."  I agree with the usual explanation that Vigeland wanted the observer to reach his own conclusions as to what all this means.  And remember, I'm saving the really strange stuff for later.

 

Ordinary average guy

This simple standing man is perhaps the most "vanilla" Vigeland Frogner work I have come across.  Most of them have some sort of twist to them, including a number showing men doing odd things with babies, such as drop kicking one.  I guess every father reached that point at one time or another.

If there's any interest, I'll post some of those later.  They're not sexual in any way, fwiw.

 

Beefy Men Day, Part 2 - Vigeland's Frogner Park Installation

Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) was a Norwegian sculptor who is best known for his massive body of work in a single installation in Frogner Park, Oslo.  (He also designed the Nobel Prize medal, fwiw.)  Here is his wiki:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Vigeland

Most of these works are men on the beefy side, so they will be the art portion of our double feature.

A number of Vigeland's statues involve burly men with babies, and this is one

 of the more conventional.  There's one with a guy punting a baby like a football.