Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
nally alone, aging, in black). With the phallic moon rising on the lake, Munch
demonizes women as they turn men into green-faced, lusty monsters.
• Our tour is over, but there's more to see in this fine collection. Take a
break from Nordic gloom and doom by visiting Rooms O and Y, with works by
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists...even Munch got into the spir-
it with his Parisian painting, titled
Rue Lafayette.
You'll see lesser known,
but still beautiful, paintings by non-Norwegian big names such as Picasso,
Modigliani, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cézanne
.
National Historical Museum (Historisk Museum)
—Directly behind the
National Gallery and just below the palace is a fine Art Nouveau building of-
fering an easy (if underwhelming) peek at Norway's history.
Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943)
As a young man, Vigeland studied sculpture in Oslo, then supplemented
his education with trips abroad to Europe's art capitals. Back home, he
carved out a successful, critically acclaimed career feeding newly inde-
pendent Norway's hunger for homegrown art.
During his youthful trips abroad, Vigeland had frequented the studio
of Auguste Rodin, admiring Rodin's naked, restless, intertwined statues.
Like Rodin, Vigeland explored the yin/yang relationship of men and wo-
men.AlsolikeRodin,Vigelanddidnotpersonallycarveorcasthisstatues.
Rather, he formed them in clay or plaster, to be executed by a workshop of
assistants. Vigeland's sturdy humans capture universal themes of the cycle
of life—birth, childhood, romance, struggle, child-rearing, growing old,
and death.
Cost and Hours:
50 kr, included 45-minute Viking tours daily at noon
in the summer; mid-May-mid-Sept Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, mid-Sept-mid-May
