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Home , Frogner Park, Gustav Vigeland

As gears up for the 150th birthday celebration

Gustav Vigeland of , modeling the Abel monument, 1905 take a look at how one of the country’s most famous sculptors cemented his legacy and continues to make an impact today. CARVED

IN STONEBY TAYLOR HUGO

22 VIKING DECEMBER 2018 sonsofnorway.com PHOTO © VIGELAND MUSEUM VIGELAND © PHOTO As 2019 approaches, the city of is preparing for on the southern coast of Norway. But when he got a little too attached to his work and became an the sesquicentenary birthday celebration of one of alcoholic, Vigeland’s mother, Anna Aanensdatter, if you go took her children to live with their grandparents Norway’s most famous native sons: Gustav Vigeland. Nobels Gate 32, on a farm in Vigeland, Norway—a town that later N-0268, Oslo When the sculptor was born in the mid-1800s, the inspired the family name change. +47 23 49 37 00 country was much different than it is today. The Though life at home was not idyllic, Vigeland’s vigeland.museum.no House of Bernadotte was still in power, with King parents may have set him on his path to becoming Hours Carl IV sitting on the throne; a devastating famine an artist. Eliseus was, first and foremost, a master Museum that swept Scandinavia had just ended, prompting carpenter, and by the time Vigeland was 15, he May 2–August 31, the emigration of thousands to the United States; was apprenticed to Torsten Christensen Fladmoe Tuesday–Sunday, and the capital city was still known as Kristiania. in Oslo. There, under Fladmoe’s tutelage, Vigeland 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Yet, even though 150 years have passed since his learned the art of woodcarving. Even at his young September 1–April 30, birth—and nearly 76 since his death—Vigeland’s age, he knew his true passion was sculpting. Tuesday–Sunday, legacy continues to reverberate throughout Vigeland briefly returned to when his 12 p.m.–4 p.m. Norway, with a museum dedicated to his work father died in 1886, but the allure of the capital Park and a park he designed attracting tourists from city wouldn’t keep him home for long. Open 24 hours around the globe. So why does this sculptor Vigeland’s Big Break

from Mandal have such Vigeland returned to Oslo VIGELAND-MUSEET/ BONO \ VISITNORWAY.COM / NANCYBUNDT BY PHOTO a lasting impact on the in the late 1880s. Learning world from and working in the and, more generally, studio of sculptor Brynjulf the Scandinavian Bergslien, 20-year-old community? “It has much Vigeland made his artistic to do with the universal debut in 1889, when he aspects of his art,” says presented “Hagar and Jarle Strømodden, the Ishmael”—a mother- director for the Vigeland and-son piece inspired by Museum in Oslo. the Book of Genesis—at “Gustav Vigeland’s art is Statens kunstutstilling, exploring what it means the Norwegian State Art to be a human.” Exhibition. Throughout the 1890s, An Artist Is Born he continued to hone his Born Adolf Gustav craft, traveling to cities in

Thorsen in 1869, Denmark, France and . MOGSTAD INGEBJORG BY PHOTO Vigeland’s childhood Learning from artists such as was not an easy one. His Mathias Skeibrok, Vilhelm father, Eliseus Thorsen, Bissen and Auguste Rodin, Pictured at right: poured the family fortune some of his prominent what to see Covering 80 acres, you could spend hours admiring the book in advance for a guided tour through Vigeland’s apartment Gustav Vigeland into the shipping industry, pieces of the time include in Vigeland Park. To spot some particularly popular pieces, walk the on the second floor. “The colors and the light, together with his in 1918 (top). but they lost everything. the clay “Forbannet,” which “Bridge” and find the bronze “Angry Boy” statue before walking artwork, make the Vigeland Museum an extraordinary, attractive Gustav and Ingerid To make ends meet, translates to “Accursed” up the “Monolith Plateau,” the highest point of the park, which location for visitors, tourists and photographers from all over the Vigeland in their Eliseus later opened a in English, and “Hell,” a boasts an impressive 57-foot carved from a single block world,” says museum director Jarle Strømodden. “The Vigeland Maridalsveien bar on the ground level bronze relief that depicts of granite. Stop for a contemplative moment at the “Fountain,” Museum is, in my humble opinion, one of Norway’s most beautiful apartment in 1922 of their three-story home Satan surrounded by people which has the longest history in the park. Inside the museum, museums with a contemplative atmosphere that is quite unique.” (bottom). in Mandal, a tiny town in despair. According PHOTOS (LEFT):MUSEUM VIGELAND © PHOTOS

24 VIKING DECEMBER 2018 sonsofnorway.com sonsofnorway.com VIKING DECEMBER 2018 25 Olav, 16 gargoyles and an oak piece showing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. But as his notoriety continued to grow, Vigeland had an opportunity to create more public works of art. His monuments of feminist and writer Camilla Collett and mathematician Niels Henrik Abel are located in the park surrounding the Royal Palace in Oslo, and his portrayal of Norway’s first prime minister, Christian Michelsen, is located in Bergen. PHOTOS BY BERIT ROALD / AFP / GETTY/ AFP / IMAGES ROALD BERIT BY PHOTOS “Vigeland’s public monuments are characterized by his ability to grasp the individuality and inner life of the persons he portrayed,” Strømodden says. Did You Know? Vigeland designed what is perhaps the most famous award in the world: the A Lasting Legacy Nobel Peace Prize medal. Featuring Alfred Nobel on the front, the back side Perhaps the defining moment of Vigeland’s career pictures three men forming a fraternal bond with the phrase “Pro pace et came in 1921, when the city of Oslo planned to fraternitate gentium,” or “For the peace and brotherhood of men.” demolish the area where his studio was located. They offered him a new home just outside Park, complete with a studio and an apartment for him and his second wife, Ingerid, on one condition: All of Vigeland’s artwork—past, present and Join the Celebration future—would be donated to Oslo. Institutions around Norway are anticipating Gustav Vigeland’s 150th birthday So, for the next 20 years of his life, the reclusive with a lineup of installations and celebrations. At the Vigeland Museum, Vigeland quietly continued to fill a special Anniversary Exhibition will open on Vigeland’s birthday, April 11, with more than 200 bronze, granite and wrought featuring the sculptor and contemporary peers like Auguste Rodin and iron sculptures. Vigeland Park is now the largest Aristide Maillol. A traveling exhibition with Norway’s National Museum will sculpture park in the world created by one artist. be displayed through “The Vigeland Park is the most comprehensive 2020, and the Thielska to Strømodden, death is a common theme in collection of Gustav Vigeland’s sculptures and art, Gallery in Stockholm is Vigeland’s work. and a strong symbol of what he could achieve Norges Bank presenting a summer He also explored the relationship between men when given space and artistic freedom,” invited five Vigeland showcase and women in his sculptures, as seen in “Young Strømodden says. artists to a starting in June. “In the competition Man and Woman” and “Man and Woman, After Vigeland’s death in 1943, the building he long run, we hope that to design the Adoration,” but that was a dynamic Vigeland called home was turned into a museum in 1947. sesquicentenary the anniversary might struggled with in his personal life. He married his With 1,600 sculptures, 420 woodcuts, 12,000 motif on the contribute to more first wife, Laura Mathilde Andersen, in 1900, and drawings and several thousand letters in the coin's reverse research among scholars together they had two children before separating museum’s collection, it offers an all-encompassing side. The winner on Vigeland,” says Guri was Håkon in 1901 and divorcing in 1906. He would go on look at the artist’s life. Though his impact on the BANK NORGES COURTESY PHOTO Skuggen, a Vigeland Anton Fagerås, to have an affair with his muse, Inga Syvertsen, European art world was on a smaller scale than with the motif Museum curator and Pictured above, for nearly 20 years before marrying Ingerid Alise some of his contemporaries, such as countryman "At Work." project leader for the top to bottom: The Vilberg in 1922. Edvard Munch, Strømodden says Vigeland anniversary celebrations. prophet Elias at Despite Vigeland’s talent, his professional life remains significant because we can still relate to Norwegians will even Nidaros Cathedral, had its ups and downs. With little money and his themes of life, death and love. “These themes have the opportunity Hagar og Ismael, few commissions in the late 1890s, he accepted are still relevant today,” he says, “and therefore to commemorate the and famous a job working on the restoration of ’s the Vigeland Museum is presenting contemporary occasion with a Norwegian Nidaros Cathedral, which had just barely survived art within the three-dimensional field, and is special edition 20- mathematician several fires. During his time there, he created 44 established as an important part of the Norwegian krone coin, released Niels Henrik Abel sculptures for the church, including a statue of St. art scene.” by Norges Bank.

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