Birger Sandzén was a Swedish immigrant artist who came to America in 1894. He spent his life teaching art at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. Sandzén is considered one of the great American landscape artists of the first half of the twentieth century. He is known as a great colorist who exulted in the rich and vibrant colors of the American West. Sandzén was also a respected author in the lively Swedish-American press around the turn of the last century. Dr. James M. Kaplan of Minnesota State University Moorhead has studied Sandzén’s writings as a way to gain an original and deeper understanding of his art. In Birger Sandzén on Art, Music and Transcendence, published by Nordic Studies Press, Dr. Kaplan has brought to life a brief cultural Camelot in America when immigrant artists, musicians and authors, nourished by the culture of the Old World, were stimulated in their craft by the exciting New World they had found in America.
Dr. Kaplan will discuss Sandzen’s work in a presentation at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle at 7:00 PM, March 26 and will sign copies of his book for the attendees.