The works of one of the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch’s contemporaries, sculptor Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943), dominate the Vigeland Sculpture Park (Vigelandsparken) in Oslo in Frogner Park to the west of the city center, an extensive display of human life and emotion cast in stone and bronze.
The most captivating piece here is Vigeland’s Monolith, a swirl of 121 intertwining figures carved from a single block of granite in a moving tribute to the human condition. A 10-minute walk south of the obelisk, at the edge of the park, is the Vigeland Museum.
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This was the artist’s atelier and home in the 1920s and is full of sketches, photos, casts and sculptures linked to his work in the sculpture park.
Also within the park is the Oslo City Museum (Bymuseet) in the beautiful Frogner Manor House which explores 1,000 years of Oslo’s cultural history and urban development.
A few block uphill near Slemdal T-Bane station is the Emanuel Vigeland Museum. Gustav Vigeland’s brother, painter Emanuel Vigeland (1875-1948), was also fascinated by themes of life and death, and used them in the alfresco decoration of a mauseleum, entitled Vita (Life), the museum’s main attraction.
The Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, written by Tor Kjolberg