The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-02-25

Rockies makes our painters blink, and
they mix so much white in their color
to get the light, that by the time they
get back east they give the impression
there is no color at all in the west.
But Mr.. Sandzen is different. He says
there is more color than light. He
defies the Colorado canyon to do its
worst, knowing he has mere vermilIion
IN his color box than Nature herself
can afford to spend on sunsets"
1T is all very vehement, very splen-
did, and very western. The only queer
thing about it is that Mr.. Sandzen
came here from Europe with Euro
pean training. and proceeds to 'yawp'
the way Walt Whitman said we should
| 'yawp'"
Peyton Roswell writes in the New
York North American; Since Kansas,
Colorado, New Mexico, and California
are the sources of Sandzen's land
scapes, it is only natural that they
should be big and broad and abound
ing in color. But he surpasseS all ex-
pectations of what such landscapes
should be, by the Vigour of his tech
nique and the 'rightness' of his COM
positions, and the gorgeousness of his
color schemes that burn as brightly
as the face of those many hued lands"
That he has delicacy of touch as
well as strength is shown in his water
colors. The blue and white of Break
ers is washed with unerring grace,
and his mountain studies show how
color and form can have the same
quality in spite of bulk and kaleido-
scopic variety"
This group of water colors itself
establishes Sandzen's distinction as an
artist; and yet he adds effect to effect.
power to power, by his Autographs
and wood cuts His studies of the in
digenous horses of the west are ad-
mirable in the knowledge of form and
the placing the form into pattern.
And his wood c1ltS haUa hrpa dtE
strength of line that reveals the driv-
ing, forceful personality behind the
graver's chisel. Sandzens first bow
to New York creates the impression
Of a great success for him.
Says the American Art News: Cali
the reports of the brilliant qualities
of the art of Burger Sandzen that
have come to us from the west, are
more than justified. the exhibition
making him stand out as a bigger and
more rounded personality than ever
report has made him.
The Christian Science Monitor
writes of Sandzen: This year the
American Scandinavian Foundation
learned of him, and his pictorial ar
ray has startled New York like ban
ners of his ancestral Vikings. If any
one else has had such massive vision
of the scenic west, it has remained
clustered Hike Sandzen's, until now.
Others have taken in wide horizons
plain with more or less force. Sand
zen focused his powers on individual
rocks. a clump of cedars. a snow
bound cliff approach, a bend in a tor
rental creek, With far greater effect"
He so touches the imagination
with isolated items that held him, as
to rouse in the beholder something
of the spirit that most have beset him
in his Wanderings. His Swedish con-
freres few years ago made a sensa- /
ton when the exhibition they sent to
the Panama-Pacific Exposition was
trailed thru the country while waiting
the end of the war and a safe passage
home, but the Impressions they made
were of nationalism that had grown
conventional, compared with the out
bursts of this plodding schoolmaster"
Here without mistake is the wild
Nordic impulse, transplanted and re-
charged with the old vigor in the at
mosphere of western America. 1t has
brought a breeze from the west that
has not been felt here before
There seems to be a strong interest
in Oriental art in New York at pres
ent. A total of S36,754.0O was real
lied from recent sale of collection
of Japanese prints. The highest price
paid for any of these was $4,000
con-" by Isoda Konyusai. A few days
after this sale a group of Chinese
snuff bottles sold for $9,O35.OO.
In view of the fact that George w.
Bellows was represented in the recent
important art exhibition held here. it
might be interesting to say that a pic |
ture Of his, Lady With Shawl
stirred up considerable of a discussion
among the members of the National
Arts club of New York before the
opening of an exhibition held lately. |
me painting was of a partially nude
figure, and the expressed opinion of
some of the clubs members was that
the figure was naked" rather than
nude, therefore suggestive
Two factions developed among the
members. One held that Bellows is
too great IN artist to paint ANYTHING
that an art-minded minded person /
could criticise. while the other faction l
cohCended that the painting indicated }
an effort at sensationalism.
An art gallery has been opened at
81 Broad street. New York CITY, in |
the very heart of the financial dis |
trlet- This was done at the sugges-
ton or a prominent financier of that
city whose name was withheld, by !
elght artists and a sculptor, all of /
them men of more than national !
prominence.
In conversation with this finan- |
c1er one of the artist founders. Frank
NJ. Moore, was lamenting the seeming
lack OF patronage among wealthy men
OF the metropolis of American art and
comparing this apparent fact with the
encouragement of native art DISPLAYED
by the wealthy of foreign countries.
why do you have your galleries
way up town, strung anywhere from
Forty-second street to the Bronx"
said the business man, why don't
you put some of the places for the
display and sale of your work down in
the financial district where we men
can conveniently drop in to have a
look at your products?'
Moore agreed II there might be
something in the suggestion, and so.
after comforting with a number of his
associates 1t was decided to establish
a gallery for the display of exclusively
American work, at the above men
toned LOCATION.
The artists back of the scheme are
Eliot Clark, Frank NJ Moore Francis