Kristian Blystad (b. 1946) has, over the course of six decades, distinguished himself as a unique sculptor, making a significant contribution to the renewal of Norwegian sculptural tradition. On the occasion of Blystad’s 80th birthday, the Vigeland Museum and the City of Oslo Art Collection are collaborating to highlight his artistic practice in this year’s summer exhibition.

The title Monolithos may be read as a reference to Gustav Vigeland’s 17-metre-high stone column, but in Blystad’s case it points to an oeuvre characterized by a unified monumentality in both form and content. Through more than 40 solo and group exhibitions and nearly 50 public art projects, Blystad has established himself as one of our foremost sculptors, with a highly distinctive approach to the sculptural medium.

Blystad’s works are characterized by their monumental scale, particularly his projects in public space. These include cladding the granite façade of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt with inscriptions, working on 19,000 square metres and 33,000 individual marble stones on the Oslo Opera House roof in Bjørvika, and the 500-square-metre pedestrian ramp at the railway station in Lillehammer. All of these projects were carried out in collaboration with the architectural firm Snøhetta. In 2023, Blystad also contributed to the completion of Klosterenga Park, Oslo’s largest municipal investment in public art since the completion of the Vigeland Park.

The collaboration between the Vigeland Museum—one of the country’s leading venues for sculpture and three-dimensional art—and the City of Oslo Art Collection, which manages Norway’s largest collection of public art, makes this exhibition particularly noteworthy. It is the first time two municipal art institutions have worked together on such a large and ambitious project.

For the exhibition at the Vigeland Museum, Blystad’s artistic practice will be presented through selected groups of motifs. From the late 1960s to the present, Blystad has consistently worked with recurring motifs in continuous circulation. His approach to materials and craftsmanship is also of particular interest, especially in relation to stone. Already in the quarries, Blystad perceives potential forms and motifs, where anonymous stone transforms from geology into new works of art. Using tools such as chisels, picks, saws, and cutting torches, Blystad works manually with physical force in the technique known as taille directe, carving directly into the stone blocks in immediate contact with the material. The carving is executed in a rough manner through the collaboration between hand and chisel, where the traces of the process are neither polished away nor removed, but instead become an integral part of the finished work.

Through this collaboration, the anniversary, and the exhibition, we aim to highlight Blystad’s contribution to Norwegian sculptural tradition—both as a bearer of tradition, in terms of promoting and preserving traditional craftsmanship in Norway, and as an innovator of the medium. Compared to other art forms, sculpture occupies a relatively modest place within the art field in terms of exhibitions and broader discourse. The same applies to the extent to which Norwegian art institutions take initiatives to recognize and celebrate artists during their lifetime. We aim to address this, also through an extensive public programme accompanying the exhibition, including a three-part initiative for children and young people, in addition to a varied programme for adults, aimed both at a professional audience and the general public.

Monolithos opens on Saturday, 6 June at 3 PM and runs until 4 October.

The public programme will be announced throughout the spring.

The exhibition is supported by Sparebankstiftelsen DNB, the Lucy Høegh Foundation, and Pecunia.