There are plenty of reasons to visit Norway, but I can't think of a better one than to see Gustav Vigeland's sculpture garden in Oslo.
One of the artistic highlights of Norway is the Sculpture Park in Oslo. The park contains 192 sculptures with more than 600 figures, all modeled in full size by Gustav Vigeland without the assistance of pupils or other artists. Vigeland also designed the architectural setting and the layout of the grounds.
The initial point of the park sculptures was the Fountain. A model was presented in 1907 to the city counsel and Gustav Vigeland was commissioned to make a Fountain. But as the time passed and not enough money was raised yet, Vigeland added many more sculptures to the project – granite sculptures that eventually were placed around the later Monolith. In 1924, the City of Oslo decided that the whole project should be fulfilled in the Frogner Park, later called Vigeland Park. In 1931 followed a renewal of the bridge over the Frogner ponds with the addition of numerous sculptures on the parapets and grounds. For the rest of his life, Vigeland continued to model new sculptures for the park until his death in 1943.
Reader comment: Alazka says: "Reading your note about Vigeland, I'm flashing back to
1983, when at 17 I was hitching around Europe and was
quite impressed by Vigeland's gardens. My inquiries
about him rapidly led me to a quest for his brother
Emmanuel's lesser-known life's work: a museum of
sculptures illustrating the kama sutra. Despite
denials of the place's existence from Oslo's official
tourism booths, my brother and I found the Emmanuel
Vigeland museum in the suburban hills, tended by
Emmanuel's widow, and arrived just in time for her to
tell us they were closing for the day.
Perhaps some of your other readers had more luck with
it?" Link
