Sandzen, Birger (1871-1954).

The most prominent artist associated with the state of Kansas, and an enormously influential teacher, Birger Sandzen was born in the Swedish village of Blidsberg in 1871. He enjoyed a happy childhood in a close-knit family. His father, a Lutheran pastor, and mother provided him with an excellent general education and encouraged his interest in art from an early age. He studied oil painting while at school in Skara before proceeding in 1890 to the University of Lund, where he studied French and art history. Painting remained his dominant interest, however, and he left the university after one year to practice art full time in the Stockholm studio of Anders Zorn, who, with his emphasis light and a limited palette, had a lasting effect on the young artist. Sandzen also studied at this time with Richard Bergh and the sculptor Per Hasselberg. In 1894 he moved to Paris for six months and painted in the studio of Edmond-Francois Aman-Jean, who was an ally of Georges Seurat in promoting Impressionism. Though he found his experience in Paris to be extremely rewarding educationally, he faced financial hardships, and was also seeking new artistic opportunities. Having been intrigued by stories about the American West since childhood, as well as by his contact with Americans in Paris, he applied for a teaching position at a Swedish institution he had read about called Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. He was hired to teach Swedish and French, as well as art, and arrived in Lindsborg in autumn 1894.

Sandzen easily adapted to his new surroundings, finding himself in congenial company at Bethany and discovering that he was well suited to his new career. He would spend the rest of his life based in Lindsborg. Appointed head of the art department in 1899, he remained in that position until his retirement in 1946. He was revered at Bethany for his generosity, talent and dedication as a teacher, and is said to have skipped the opening of his first one-man show, held at Babcock Gallery in New York in 1922, so as not to miss class. Teaching mainly through demonstration, he greatly emphasized color, considering it the long-neglected foundation of painting.

By 1915 his style, increasingly reflecting the colors and ruggedness of the Southwest, had evolved from a Pointillist approach into a highly structured version of Fauvism with thick impasto and a brighter and lighter palette than he had previously used. He frequently traveled throughout the Southwest, attracted by the beautiful forms and vivid color of the mountain landscapes of Colorado and New Mexico, and spent summers in the 1920’s and 30’s at a rented house in Estes Park, Colorado. In 1922 he became an associate of the Taos Society of Artists. In addition to painting in oils and watercolor, he also made prints, mainly lithographs and block prints. By the time of his death in 1954, he was well known across America, and had received many honors at home and in his native country. He left behind his wife of 54 years, Frida, and his only child, a daughter named Margaret.

Sources:

Gerdts, William. Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting 1710-1920, Volume Three. New York: Abbeville, 1990.

Lindquist, Emory. Birger Sandzen: An Illustrated Biography. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1993.