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Entries in Birger Sandzen (1)

Monday
Apr252011

Impressions of the West: Thomas Pynchon

(Note: For a long while we had a photo at the beginning of this post that had been identified on several sites as Thomas Pynchon. However, a reader recently alerted us to the fact that the photo probably was not of Thomas Pynchon. Consequently, we've removed it. If anyone has a photo that has been verified as being of Pynchon, who is well-known for his desire for privacy, please contact us. Thank you.)

Grand Canyon, Thomas Moran. Credit: PaintingHere.com

‘This is the kind of sunset you hardly see any more, a 19th-century wilderness sunset, a few of which got set down, approximated, on canvas, landscapes of the American West by artists nobody ever heard of, when the land was still free and the eye innocent, and the presence of the Creator much more direct. … of course Empire took its way westward, what other way was there but into those virgin sunsets to penetrate and to foul?”

Gravity’s Rainbow, p. 214.      

Sunset in Yosemite Valley, Albert Bierstadt. Credit: Artchive.com

After the Storm, Gilbert Munger. Credit: The Paintings of Gilbert Munger (Michael D. Schroeder)

Sunset at Black Rock, Paul Fjellboe. Credit: The Springville Museum of Art

Moonrise in the Canyon, Moab, Utah, Birger Sandzen. Credit: Springville Museum of Art

Wingate Cliffs, Ed Mell. Credit: Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts