These are verbatim quotations from the members of our tour group during our visit earlier this month to Vigeland Park in Oslo, Norway. The works of art about which they are speaking are creations of Norway's most renowned artist, Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943).
Born on the southern coast of Norway, the son of a woodcarver, Gustav began learning his family's trade at a young age. While Gustav was still a boy, his father, stern and overbearing, started drinking heavily and left home for a younger woman. This devastated the family as Gustav and his siblings were taken by their mother to live in a strange village far away.
Even as an adult, Gustav kept to himself. It is said that he did not want to narrow or bias his views on humanity and their relations with one another.
Vigeland park boasts 192 sculptures by Norway's famed sculptor.
The 192 sculptures composed of more than 600 human figures in Vigeland Park were created during the course of twenty years. They were a result of an agreement between Gustav and the Oslo government that if the city would provide Vigeland with a studio and space to exhibit his works, then all of the resulting art would be a gift to Oslo.
What started simply as a fountain grew in concept until it became an 88-acre park with tree-lined walkways, manicured lawns, flowerbeds, and sculptures of bronze, granite, and limestone all designed and produced (with ample help) by Gustav Vigeland.
Sculptures line the bridge in the park.
The presentation of the park begins as an arched entrance into a fairway with double walkways. Next appears a lake spanned by a bridge flanked with more than 40 bronze statues. After that are massive plantings of fragrant roses orange, red, yellow, and pink.
The Vigeland fountain is 2.5 stories high.
Then rises a two-and-a-half story fountain, where six granite heroic-sized figures hold a bowl aloft, pouring water into a square bronze-sided pool with cast bronze trees surrounding it containing sculpted figures.
Granite groupings surround the fountain.
The double paths then climb up landscaped terraces with more pools and smaller fountains to a central elevation with clusters of granite figures radiating from the center shaft a 55-foot tall single granite spire carved into figures of endless humanity, writhing and stretching upward with groping limbs.
This spire of humanity represents the religion of the sculptor.
When asked about the meaning of this column, Vigeland explained only that it represented his religion. As someone who knows something about carving stone, Vigeland Park is truly a work of massive proportions!
The themes of the many sculptures in the park are common experiences in anyone's life birth, childhood, love, marriage, family life, conflict between men and women, death and separation, love, rage, sadness and joy.
This sculpture represents the giving of comfort.
Examples are an old man holding his dying wife, a mother cuddling her baby, children playing, or a man throwing a woman down, pulling her hair.
Vigeland portrays babies with traditional maternal sensitivity, but then uses non-conformist methods as well. One grouping depicts a baby learning to walk. Then next door will be a man trying to shake off four babies stuck to his limbs like leeches. (Picture 7 insert)
Leech-babies offered a disquieting image to American tourists.
My youngest daughter protested loudly when she saw a bas relief of a horse kicking a baby into the air. Obviously the artist was successful in stirring up the emotions of his audience.
Horses also kick babies in the sculptor's world.
During one of my art lectures, I asked the group of seasoned Latter-day Saint world travelers what they thought of the park. They agreed unanimously that the natural setting was quite beautiful, but the majority found the message of the sculptures vulgar or offensive. Many said it didn't meet the standard of the 13 th Article of Faith. With more than a million visitors a year, the park seems to be popular enough. I think it would be more popular with Latter-day Saints if the figures weren't totally nude.
Personally, I feel that Gustav Vigeland readily attracts a world audience because of the subject matter, and we give him rapt attention. However, except for visual stimulation, he gives us nothing back. Were already familiar with these things in our own lives. What we want to know is why it's all worth it. I find no hope in his work. For the winding mass of humanity on the granite column, they are rising upward, but not to heaven.
Where is our hope in the meaning of our lives our crying, laughing, struggling and aspiring selves? Is it all in vain? Is it only a contribution to evolution? That seems to be Vigeland's mundane vision.
The gardens at Peterhof were more inspirational because they contained a message of celebration.
Our group also visited the beautiful gardens of Czar Peter the Great at Peterhof in Russia. But the message the czar wanted to convey was the celebration of the Russians over the Swedes in the war of 1805. As our group agreed, regal gold statues and fountains gave a feeling of majesty, but the Spirit of the Lord was not there. Nor was it at Vigeland Park.
What would the effect be if the beauty of God's green earth were combined with art and sculpture inspired by the Spirit of God?
