The Angry Boy is one of the sculptures created by Gustav Vigeland for the Vigeland installation at Frogner Park between 1924 and 1944. However, there is no information on or near the statue with the specific date The Angry Boy was created.
The Angry Boy sculpture is one of the most popular statues in the park. It depicts a naked little boy crying and about to stamp his foot. He's so popular that he's being damaged by the touch of tourists.
"The Angry Boy's golden hand
In recent years there has been an increasing tendency that visitors in The Vigeland Park want to be photographed while holding The Angry Boy’s hand. This has made the hand shiny due to wear and tear, and traces of Gustav Vigeland's modelling have disappeared.
The Angry Boy (1928) is cast in bronze. Bronze reacts with substances in the environment to form a thin film that protects the metal surface. This is called patina and has usually a brown or green colour. By constantly touching the same place on the sculpture patina and details on the metal surface is fading away.
To protect The Angry Boy’s hand we repatinated the hand in June [2015]. We hoped that this would make it less tempting to touch the sculpture and that the patina would last for a while. Unfortunately this has not been the case, and in August [2015] the hand is again golden and shiny.
The Vigeland Museum is responsible for the preservation of the sculptures in the Vigeland Park for future generations. We encourage the public to help us taking care of The Angry Boy by not touching his hand."
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The following information about the Vigeland installation and Gustav Vigeland is from Wikipedia (
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"Gustav Vigeland is most widely known for the Vigeland installation, a permanent sculpture installation in Frogner Park in Oslo.
In 1921 the City of Oslo decided to demolish the house where Vigeland lived and build a library. After a long dispute, Vigeland was granted a new building from the city where he could work and live: in exchange, he promised to donate to the city all his subsequent works, including sculptures, drawings, engravings and models.
Vigeland moved to his new studio on Nobels gate in the borough of Frogner during 1924. His studio was located in the vicinity of Frogner Park, which he had chosen as the definitive location for his fountain. Over the following twenty years, Vigeland was devoted to the project of an open exhibition of his works, which later turned into what is known as Vigeland Sculpture Arrangement (Vigelandsanlegget) in Frogner Park. The Vigeland installation features 212 bronze and granite sculptures all designed by Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures culminate in the famous Monolith (Monolitten), with its 121 figures struggling to reach the top of the sculpture."