All of these sculptures are from the Gustav Vigelund Sculture Garden which is an 80 acre park in Oslo dedicated to the sculptures of, you guessed it, Gustav Vigelund (1869-1943). Vigelund did the architecture and the landscaping in the park, and the sculptures, all 212 of them. Not one with a stitch of clothing. The effect is not erotic though, but universal. The little guy to the left is called "Sinnataggen", the little hot head, and caused quite a stir when he was stolen in 1992.

The parkland and a studio were made available to the artist by the City of Oslo under an agreement made in 1921. In exchange he signed ownership of all of his sculptures drawings and woodcuts, as well as the ownership of all future works, over to the city. He moved into the studio in 1924 and lived there until his death in 1943, when the studio was turned into a museum. While all of the sculpture in the park was originally modelled by Vigeland, the actual carving in granite was done by professional artisans from full size models made by him.

The Monolith is a 46 foot high column carved from a single block of stone, and contains 121 figures. Vigeland took only ten months to complete the model of the monolith in 1924 and 1925, but the granite version took three stone carvers from 1929 to 1943 to complete. Many interpretations of the monolith have been suggested, but Vigeland stated that he had no wish to express an opinion about the "meaning" of the Monolith, but said "The stone groups tell about life, the column about the world of fantasy. The stone groups can therefore be understood by anyone, each can interpret the column in his own way". Your guess is good as mine. This is probably the single Vigeland work that shows up the most on the web, but why should I be different?

Around the monolith are a collection of statues in granite that include some of the most intense sculpture in the park. The sculptures in this area were started around the time of the first world war and completed in 1936. There are 36 groupings of statues, all dealing with the various periods in the cycle of life--birth, childhood, adolescence, maturity, old age, and death, with people portrayed in "a variety of typical human situations and relationships." Or that is what the museum site says, though you can decide for yourself how typical they are.

The bridge is 100 meters long and 15 meters wide and is built on top of an old bridge constructed in 1914. Vigeland designed the new bridge and modelled the 58 bronze sculptures in the years 1925 to 1933. The sculptures stand on either side of the Bridge, and portray people of widely differing ages, although there is less emphasis on old age than in other areas in the park.