The Artist - Sven Birger Sandzen
Birger Sandzen was born in Sweden in 1871, and died in Lindsborg, Kansas, in 1954. Sandzen was best known as an impressionist landscape painter of the American Rockies, but he was also a graphic artist and, for over 50 years, a university professor.
The son of a Lutheran minister, Sandzen received all of his art education in Europe. He immigrated to Kansas in 1894, at the age of 23, with an appointment to teach modern languages, painting, and aesthetics at Bethany College in Lindsborg. For the next 52 years, he devoted himself to teaching, not only at the college but also across the prairie in small towns and villages, leaving behind generations of men and women with an appreciation of the visual arts. Sandzen was a professional artist with little interest in making a national reputation for himself. He was happy influencing no more than the small, Midwestern communities.
In 1928, Sandzen came to Utah at the invitation of Calvin Fletcher of the Utah State Agricultural College (later known as Utah State University) in Logan. While in Utah, Sandzen also was invited to be a visiting professor at the Brigham Young University in Provo for the summer of 1928. He later taught in Logan, Utah, during the summers of 1929 and 1930.
The heightened color and intensity of emotion which Sandzen's paintings display are not a reflection of the calm, methodical manner in which they were executed. His philosophy, according to Sandzen's daughter, is best described as "controlled exuberance for life." Also called a Poetic Expressionist, in reference to his orientation to figures and landscapes, he captured the imagination of many other Utah artists, because his work was so unlike Utah's art at the time.
The Art
SVEN BIRGER SANDZEN (1871-1954) Kansas/Utah
Moonrise in the Canyon, Moab, Utah, 1928
oil on canvas, 40" x 48" (101.2 x 122.1 cm)
Gift from Springville High School, Junior Class, SMA-1928.003
Birger Sandzen was attracted to Utah by the enthusiastic reception three of his paintings had received at the Springville High School Art Gallery's "Spring Salon" in 1927. In early 1928, he was in southeastern Utah where he painted Moonrise in the Canyon, Moab, Utah. When he exhibited the oil at the 1928 Salon, it was purchased by the Junior class for the Gallery.
Sandzen's influence on Utah art of the period was immeasurable. His thick impasto, raw color, and regionalist scenery captured the imagination of such Utah artists as Phillip H. Barkdull, Louise Richards Farnsworth, Mabel Frazer, LeRoy Gardner, and Calvin Fletcher. Sandzen painted in a Neo-Impressionistic or Fauvist style very unlike the restrained, conservative art of Utah at the time. Fauvism, from the French "fauve," meaning "wild beast," is a style using pure, brilliant color combined with rough brushstrokes and thick outlines. The Fauves strove to liberate color; light and shadows were believed to be equally luminous, resulting in works that contrast hues rather than tones. Sandzen's expressive, energetic style was short-lived because the onset of the Great Depression caused a more somber spirit to pervade the art of the period.
Concepts
Visual Art Core Curriculum - Utah State Office of Education
Under the Standard of Making, this print can help the student:
- identify and show how to use the horizon line to represent eye level in art.
- learn how to fuse cast shadows that overlap.
- explore another art medium, such as stained-glass, to determine whether this same type of image could be reproduced in a similar fashion.
Under the Standard of Perceiving, this print can help the student:
- learn how to create the illusion of space.
- describe the three properties of color: hue, value, and intensity.
- show how to modify the value of colors to create intentional effects such as the difference between the sky and the land in this painting.
- differentiate and identify colors by value and intensity.
- explore how the type of rendering (for example, loose, painterly brush strokes) helps define the apparent texture of the actual object.
Under the Standard of Expressing, this print can help the student:
- group artists and their works according to style or similar visual characteristics.
- select themes or symbols appropriate for describing an idea or personal experience.
- brainstorm several different approaches for creating an artwork using this image as a basis. (For example, how would it appear if the brush strokes were smooth and undetectable, what if a different color scheme were used, what if the work were completed half the size of the original or twice as large?)
Under the Standard of Contextualizing, this print can help the student:
- describe the impact of this painting in the time and place it was created.
- hypothesize whether the meaning of this painting has changed over time.
- make connections between this artwork and another discipline (for example, biology, geography, and/or physical science).
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