Professor emeritus James Kaplan publishes book
Dr. James M. Kaplan, professor emeritus at MSUM, has published a book about Birger Sandzén, a Swedish immigrant artist who came to America in 1894. In Birger Sandzén on Art, Music and Transcendence, published by Nordic Studies Press, Kaplan describes 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 found in America.
Sandzén spent his life teaching art at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. He is considered one of the great American landscape artists of the first half of the twentieth century, known especially 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. For further information on Kaplan’s book, go to Nordicstudiespress.com.