There are some things that Vigeland had planned to have in VIgeland Park that have not yet today been erected and some sculptures never will be erected. He made about 100 bas-reliefs for the fountain and only 60 are used. Vigeland was still working on the bas-reliefs when he died in 1943. He began before he was 20 and continued for over 50 years until his death. The park was also supposed to have a fence all the way around it. There are wrought iron gates at the main entrance and around the Monolith.
The Trees of Life are very much a description of different situations that a person will or can run into during their life time. The park as a whole is showing all the different windows into different ways of life. Gustav Vigeland Was a wonderful artist and managed to create a park that can never go out of style or become out dated because some things in life just never change. Vigeland was very dedicated to his work. "Not since renaissance has a sculpture devoted so many years to a unified bas-relief project."(12) His work can also be a passage way into the past to see how someone looked upon life at a passage way into the past to see how someone looked upon life at a different time and compare it to the way we see our lives today. In working on this essay I found out why many people do not know much about Vigeland. In comparing the books in Norwegian to the books in English there is a huge difference. The English books do not tell the reader the meanings behind his works that well, and the ones in Norwegian go into more detail in all the different aspects of his life. The books in English also have almost a negative approach to his works. This in turn has made it very difficult for me (I do not understand much Norwegian) to find information on him. There are also a very limited number of books available on him in English.
12. Nathan Cabot Hale, Embarace of Life: the Sculpture of Gustav Vigeland (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 19668), p. 112