Gustav Vigeland. The power and feeling of sculpture Thiel Gallery 15 June – 29 September, 2019
The human condition and the power of eroticism and melancholy were the underpinning themes for the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland (1869–1943). He devoted his entire life to art and worked intently on completing his monumental sculptural projects. After a bohemian existence in 1890s Europe, he returned to Norway, to make portraits and innovative monuments. The final decades of his life were spent mainly on creating Vigelandsparken in Christiania (now Oslo). This exhibition seeks to give a fuller picture of the artist behind Vigelandsparken, Vigeland’s efforts to promote his artistic endeavours, and the importance of social networks. Vigeland was driven by his artistic visions, not least when it came to shape a public space for the existential quest of modern man. With its eight bronze sculptures, the Thiel Gallery has the largest collection of Vigeland’s art outside Norway. Four of these can be seen in the Gallery’s park: Man Embracing a Woman (1905), Man and Woman (1906), Old Man and Young Girl (1906), and Mother and Child (1907). Ernest Thiel supported Vigeland at a pivotal point in his artistic career. Their relationship is a fascinating aspect of the common Swedish-Norwegian cultural heritage. This exhibition is a tribute to the 150th anniversary of Gustav Vigeland, which is celebrated in 2019.
Spiritual portrayal of bohemian and modern life
Gustav Vigeland has a unique position among Norwegian sculptors, with a vast body of work and singular imagery focusing on mankind. He grew up in Mandal in southern Norway, but moved to Christiania when he was only 15, where he was apprenticed to a wood carver. After deciding to be a sculptor, he studied at Tegneskolen, the Norwegian university for crafts and applied arts.
In the 1890s, Vigeland travelled around Europe to learn more. While studying in Copenhagen, one of his Danish artist friends, Ludvig Brandstrup, sculpted the portrait in this room. It shows Vigeland as a slender and serious young man, but the tousled hair suggests that he was intense and lively. During his six months in Paris in 1893, Vigeland encountered modern sculpture, visited Auguste Rodin’s studio and made friends with artists from all over Europe.
Vigeland went to Berlin in 1895 and was admitted to the circles that frequented the inn Zum Schwarzen Ferkel (The Black Piglet), where he met the Nordic writers August Strindberg, Laura Marholm and Dagny Juel, the artists Edvard Munch, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Christian and Oda Krogh, and the Polish writer and mystic Stanisław Przybyszewski. They all shared a disdain for bourgeois ideals and an interest in erotic libertarianism, the mysteries of existence and radical art.
The pleasures and emotional crises of modern life, particularly with regard to relations between women and men, became Vigeland’s main artistic themes. Violent motifs and hellish creatures were created alongside tender, loving scenes. The full emotional spectrum was to be portrayed, but without sentimentality or conventional romance.
Portraits and networks. Models and national heroes
In the years after 1900, Vigeland worked intensely on establishing himself as a sculptor on the Scandinavian art scene. He made numerous busts of prominent Norwegians in the arts, politics and academia, including the composer Edvard Grieg, the writer Henrik Ibsen, the explorer Fridtjof Nansen and the linguist Sophus Bugge. From the younger generation, he portrayed the radical author Gunnar Heiberg, and his own brother, Emanuel, who was also an artist.
Som of these portraits reveal the nature of Vigeland’s hectic private life. Inga Syvertsen was Vigeland’s partner in life and work. She photographed his sculptures, assisted him in the studio, including plaster casting, and kept notes that are now an invaluable source of information. Alongside Syvertsen, he had a relationship for many years with the model Marie Nordby.
Sweden and Norway were a personal union of separate kingdoms from 1814 to 1905. But there was a strong Norwegian movement for independence. Vigeland’s commissions are a testimony to the contacts between the two nations. They include a portrait of the Swedish King Oscar II, and the medal for the Alfred Nobel Peace Prize, which is awarded in Norway. Ernest and Signe Thiel were among Vigeland’s most important patrons; they corresponded and visited each other. The portrait busts are signs of friendship but also manifestations of the social networks that strengthened Vigeland’s position as an artist and Thiel’s reputation as an innovative collector.
The animate monument. Symbolist sculptures
When the Swedish-Norwegian union was dissolved in 1905, both countries grew more nationalistic, both in the arts and society in general. The Norwegian economic boom in the early 1900s gave more opportunities to build monuments. Gustav Vigeland worked on several sketches and drafts in parallel.
A competition for a monument in honour of the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel was announced in 1902. The proposal submitted by Vigeland showed Abel travelling naked through the universe. The jury took a long time making its decision, and Vigeland was contacted meanwhile by the Swedish collector Ernest Thiel. He wanted to fund the artistic work of Vigeland and sent him an advance sum of SEK 2,000. After much deliberation, Vigeland’s proposal was chosen. The artist claimed that Thiel’s patronage had influenced the jury, which had feared that the work would end up in Sweden.
Vigeland portrayed both historical and contemporary figures. The Norwegian priest and poet Petter Dass (1647–1707) stands on a high cliff and fights with his fist against a troll fish that has sunk its teeth into his foot. Henrik Wergeland (1808–1845) was a Norwegian writer and polemicist, celebrated for his linguistic contribution to the Norwegian language. The monument portrays the experience of cosmic ecstasy described in Wergeland’s later works – the poet is surrounded by the spirits of inspiration.
The artist, writer and women’s rights activist Asta Hanesteen (1824–1908) was among Vigeland’s friends. His portrait shows her as a fearless, controversial woman who stood her ground in public debates. The composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1826) fascinated many European artists around 1900. The demonic creative force is visualised in the monument that Vigeland ordered to be made at his own expense.
Gustav Vigeland’s impactful imagery and his poetic and dramatic portraits went against classical tradition. Instead of statues and memorials with uniforms, medals and attributes, Vigeland shows the inner movement of the subjects – the power of ideas and the strength of inspiration.
The fountain. Artistic vision and financial support
Sweden was enthusiastic about Gustav Vigeland’s art in the early 1900s. The newspapers covered his projects and exhibitions and collectors bought his works. This support in Sweden helped to strengthen interest in the sculptor’s work in Norway.
In 1906, Vigeland launched his plans for a national monument in the form of a fountain to be erected outside the Stortinget Parliament in Christiania. A circle of trees adorn the bassin, with men, women and children entwined in their branches. The base is decorated with reliefs of naked people dancing, playing and fighting. In the centre, six muscular men carry a mighty bowl with water gushing over its rim. Human joy and misery are framed by the shifting natural surroundings.
Vigeland campaigned for support to build it and sent photos of his proposal to Thiel, who offered to spread rumours to the effect that he wanted to buy the fountain and erect it in Sweden. Thiel told the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter that the monument would be built, whether it stayed in Norway or not. He eventually contributed NOK 50,000 of the total NOK 250,000 needed to secure the project in Norway. “This is the happiest day of my life!” Vigeland replied.
The fountain also got funding from the Municipality of Christiania and other financers, but the project was postponed. This was the beginning of the prospecting of what is now Vigelandsparken. Thiel and Vigeland plotted together by playing on the young Norwegian national spirit after the newly-won independence, and eventually got Vigeland’s grandiose park project started.
The park. Human life as a Gesamtkunstwerk
Gustav Vigeland is best known for the large park in Oslo called Vigelandsparken, although its official name is Frognerparken. It has more than 200 sculptures in bronze, granite and wrought iron and is a popular tourist attraction. The concept of developing this huge outdoor area originated in the 1920s. It was to feature four principal parts: The Main Portal, The Bridge, The Fountain, and The Monolith.
The Monolith is the heart of the park, a 17-metre granite pillar cut out of one piece of stone. More than 100 nude figures illustrate man’s quest to transcend the earthly limitations – from surrender and fight to care and ecstasy. Around it are some 30 sculpture groups exploring human relations: from lovers meeting, and wild dancing and games, to conflicts between men and women. The most famous sculpture in the park is perhaps Sinnataggen (Angry Boy). The unbridled rage of the infant is portrayed as a primordial force. Livshjulet (The Wheel of Life) symbolises eternity and sums up the dramatic theme of the park: human life from cradle to grave, through joy and sorrow, accompanied by dreams, fantasies and the longing for freedom.
It took until 1950 before most of the sculptures and the park’s architectural elements were completed. Craftsmen made the sculptures according to Vigeland’s instructions, and the artist was also clever at obtaining both public and private financing. The park is the result of the vision of one artist alone, but many women and men have contributed to making it come true.
Form and movement. Changing styles
Gustav Vigeland’s artistic style began to change already in the 1910s towards simpler, smoother shapes. Several artists in Europe were developing in a similar direction, including the French sculptors Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929) and Aristide Maillol (1861–1944). They sought a spare monumentalism of volumes and vigour, devoid of attributes or decorative effects. Vigeland denied being inspired by any other sculptors, but his large collection of photographs of art works, art books and magazines indicates that he kept a close watch over artistic developments in Europe. Despite living like a recluse, Vigeland had regular contacts with the world around him.
Vigeland worked on his monumental style in condensed formats in a series of figure studies in the 1930s. Bodies meet in drastic, physical poses, combining a compact, powerful expression with emotional content; “I have wanted to fuse monumentality with feeling. My monuments are always felt, not engendered by reflection or calculation.”
The City of Oslo had agreed to build a studio and residence for Vigeland in exchange for an agreement that his entire oeuvre – past and future works in all formats – would become the property of the City upon his death. The artist died in 1943, and the Vigeland Museum opened in the premises a few years later.
The similarities between Vigeland’s style and the aesthetics of fascism have been debated since the end of the Second World War. Vigeland claimed he was pleased to receive a delegation with the German Minister of Culture in his studio in 1941, but he also feared that the Wehrmacht would destroy his art. His style was the contemporary ideal, but Vigeland’s own statements indicate that he was not interested in politics and that his artistic projects were his top priority.