THE BIG PRETTY - Featured Works from the Birger Sandzén Museum Show at Vail International Gallery
Gallery artist Sarah Winkler's first ever solo museum exhibition at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Art Gallery takes place in a fitting location for the artist. Winkler and Sandzén are artists who share the Western landscape as their primary subject. And for both artists it is an adopted subject; Sandzén's origins were in Scandinavia and Winkler's in the United Kingdom. Like so many, they fell in love with the unrivaled beauty of the American West and in so doing found their lifelong muse. Please enjoy this extraodinary group of works depicting the beauty of the American West, works that are in the tradition of other great American artists who found their calling in what Sandzén so aptly named The Big Pretty.
The Big Pretty: Paintings by Sarah Winkler of Morrison, Colorado
On View at Vail International Gallery starting August 3rd, 2026
Artist Statement
I first encountered a Birger Sandzén painting in the Denver Art Museum’s Western Art Collection. It is titled A Mountain Symphony (Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado). What struck me about the work was the scale of the composition, its bold palette, and the muscular texture of the expressive brush strokes. I saw in his painted language depicting the landscapes of the West, the connection to European impressionist and Fauve painting styles. It didn't surprise me that he was dubbed the “Van Gogh of the West.” Three years ago, I happened upon the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery during a fateful snowstorm on the Great Plains that detoured my route through Lindsborg, Kansas. I was excited to discover his namesake gallery and take a look inside. A painting on display, titled Moonrise Over the Colorado River, inspired me to create a version of this scene in my own style. I instantly felt a kinship to his work’s extraordinary vision and his immigration journey from Sweden to the American West which I could relate to my own from the United Kingdom to Colorado’s Front Range.
Birger Sandzén visited Colorado regularly from Lindsborg and dubbed the Rocky Mountain landscapes as “The Big Pretty.” His interest in geology, light and shadow contrast, vivid color, and texture echoes my own. I decided to title my show that exact phrase and have focused many of the paintings on Colorado’s Front Range locations that he enjoyed visiting and painting. Iconic stops such as Longs Peak, the Colorado River, and Garden of the Gods pay homage to the legacy and works of Birger Sandzén through my contemporary approach.
VAIL INTERNATIONAL GALLERY
100 E Meadow Drive, Suite 17
Vail, Colorado 81657
Summer Season Hours:
10am - 7pm Monday - Saturday
10am - 5pm Sunday
Lake Haiyaha, Rocky Mountain National Park, 48x48” Acrylic on Panel. 2026
