Gustav Vigeland’s The Angry Boy: Winnicottian Reflections on the Subjectivity of Boys and Men

This essay explores possible meanings hidden in the 1928 bronze statue Sinnataggen—The Angry Boy—by the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland. The toddler, exuding anger and frustration, is a beloved statue. What is his attraction? Why is the boy angry, and what does he seek to communicate? The essay argues there is an Angry Boy in every boy and man, an emotion prohibited by contemporary American culture and especially for men of color. Anger, a response to one’s environment, is central to feeling alive and feeling real. Through a circumscribed conversation between Vigeland, The Angry Boy, and psychoanalyst D. W. Winnicott, the author argues that The Angry Boy represents core experiences of the complex male self. Contemporary boys and men have a conversation partner in Vigeland’s iconic statue.