Marg's Norway in a Nutshell etc...: Sculptures, Resistance and the Scream!

Today was a beautiful sunny Sunday to finish our museum marathon. Our first stop took us to the 75 acre Frogner Park which is a hop skip and a jump from our apartment. This is a 75 acre park that contains a lifetime of work by Norway's greatest sculptor, Gustav Vigeland. In 1921 he made a deal with the city and in return for a great studio and state support he would spend his creative life beautifying Oslo with this sculpture garden entitled Vigeland Park. There are 192 bronze and granite statue groupings - 600 figures in all, each nude (!) and unique. The park is very respected by the people of Oslo, no police, no fences and no graffiti. It was lovely to wander through the park with other Norweigians and tourists and basque in the sunshine on this beautiful September day. They say that this park is more than great art - - it's a city at play and we witnessed that today.

Vigeland did not name his statues and refused to explain their meaning. His art is an observation on the bittersweet cycle of life in general. They are all about relationships. Very interesting to view and to see Norweigian children climbing on and interacting with the statues.

Here are some pics through the park. One in particular is of an angry child. Gustavo gave him some chocolate and then took it away to get this reaction.

Next we went inside to the Vigeland museum to understand more about this sculpture and see his works and the history of Vigeland park.

Next off to the Resistance Museum atop the Akershus Fortress to learn about Nazi occupation of Norway. The Nirweigians experienced 5 years of occupation from invasion to liberation. They've done a wonderful job of preserving and sharing this history.

Following this a stroll through the Akerhaus medieval castle from around 1300AD remodelled to a renaissance castle in the 17th century. Today it is used by government for state events. A few pics - look at that long table!