Across from the main office at CCCHS hangs a large painting, 36” by 48”. A textured oil painting, made with large swatches of paint that are left to dry, rather than blended, it’s hung in the same area since the school was erected in 1963. Before that, the post-impressionism piece was featured at the former Clay County High School. It was purchased for the building in May of 1920.
“If you study the painting up close, you can see large blobs of color as you get further away, the eye blends the primary colors to create a secondary color,” said retired CCCHS art teacher, Tracy Lebo. “For example, the primary blue placed next to the primary yellow will appear as a secondary green.”
Named Early Fall, Smoky River, the piece was obtained by USD 379 back in 1920 when its artist, Birger Sandzén (Sand-SAIN), held an exhibition at the school. The “Van Gogh of the Plains” regularly displayed his work throughout high schools, which allowed him to sell art as a side job. He also taught at Bethany College in Lindsborg for 52 years.
Originally from Sweden, Sandzén moved to Kansas to see the world; researchers say he never intended to stay but was taken with the landscape. He regularly painted the Smoky River, the American Southwest, and various national parks. He taught summers in places like Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, in part to capture the views.
Ron Michael, current director of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery, located on the Bethany Campus, said other pieces were sold at the Clay Center High School exhibition, though it could have been to private citizens.
“Popularity was definitely growing by 1920,” Michael said. “The first time he worked in the school system was in McPherson in 1911, and things built over the years.”
The prolific artist finished close to 4,000 oil paintings alone, most all of which were scenic landscapes, and 328 prints.
However, there’s more than just artistic value that comes with the Sandzén painting; it’s sentimental. A former art teacher from CCCHS not only studied within the program Sandzén built, but directed the latter’s Memorial Gallery on the Lindsborg campus. Larry Griffis taught at CCCHS for a decade before leaving the profession when he was asked to become curator of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery; it was something he’d never thought he’d pursue, but was asked to consider and knew it was the right move.
“I had a good friend who worked at the gallery, and when he retired, I was recruited,” Griffis, now 81, said. “In those days they had the best art teachers that were available.”
When Early Fall, Smoky River was lent out for a traveling show, it was Griffis himself who signed it from and back to the high school, his former place of work. Griffis also took three years off from teaching to fight in the Vietnam War, but returned to CCCHS, where he remained until 1980.
Though Sandzén died in 1954, before Griffis attended Bethany College, the latter spent decades learning about the artist’s work. In more than three decades as the Birger Sandzén Memorial Director, Griffis wrote papers on the artist and researched his work, including through changing methods.
“Sandzén had time to paint and go out; he liked to walk the countryside and had time to produce work,” he said. “He was encouraged to do it because it helped with his income.”
In addition, Griffis said Sandzén was a generous artist, allowing patrons to make payments – at the time paintings went for a few hundred dollars. He also provided lithograph prints as a gift with many of his paintings. For a time, these prints hung in former CCCHS principal Ed Butterfield’s office, Griffis said.
“He was a generous artist all his life – always a kind and generous man.”
Of Early Fall, Smoky River, Griffis noted the style that remained signature of a short period of Sandzén’s work.
“That’s when he would lay the paint down in a thick layer and let it dry; it’s called impasto. He used these rich, full colors,” Griffis said. “In later years, he used smaller brushes and painted with more pastel colors.”
However, Sandzén wasn’t the only one to leave his art within the school; one of Griffis’ own works is still displayed in the school’s halls. A large, roaring tiger painting hangs across from a locker room, facing the basement’s north stairs.
Griffis remembered creating another tiger for the school, this one far larger, on the southeast wall of the gym. The school had commissioned a large mascot, along with smaller versions of their competitors. Griffis said he had to redo a portion when it was pointed out that he’d misspelled a mascot.
“I had to change it for him,” he laughed. “I put LOS, and it was supposed to be LOES.” (Belleville, before it joined with Republic County, was part of the NCKL from 1976-1983.)
While the Sandzén is still displayed in its original spot, today it’s found encased behind glass and a wooden frame. Lebo said this helped get the painting off the cinderblock wall, which can hold moisture, but it will keep it intact from passersby.
“Students in detention, it was just horrible,” Lebo said; Griffis laughed about the same subject. “I remember how sometimes students sitting on a couch that was underneath [the painting] would sit and pick; they’re just sitting there and would look up – it was something to mess with.”
