The Artwork of
F.W. “Bill” Thomsen
F.W. “Bill” Thomsen (1906-1991) was an artist, visionary, minister, and teacher who inspired many people with his art and his philosophy. He was greatly influenced by John G. Neihardt, the Poet Laureate of Nebraska, and Black Elk, the Oglala Lakota holy man.
The influence of the Nebraska poet and Native American holy man upon Thomsen was expressed in his final series of works, a collection of drawings and paintings based on “Black Elk Speaks” displayed at the Neihardt State Historic Site. That series culminated in the mosaic “Tower of the Four Winds” high on a hill in Black Elk-Neihardt Park in Blair, Nebraska.
The three men will be forever linked for people who view this collection or walk the hills in west Blair and gaze up at Thomsen’s interpretation of Black Elk’s vision. As Thomsen said, “the tower symbolizes what we have been writing about and dreaming about for so long, trying to weld people together in peace and compassion.”
Born in Hjorring, Denmark, Thomsen came to America with his family when he was six years old, and they settled in Racine, Wisconsin. He was a graduate of the Cleveland Art Institute, St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Thomsen also graduated from Trinity Seminar at Dana College in Blair, Nebraska.
Thomsen started the art department at Dana College (now defunct), where he continued as chair through 1972. He retired as Professor Emeritus of Art in 1975. Bill Thomsen died January 6, 1991.
After his death, members of the Neihardt Foundation Board of Directors recognized the importance of this collection and set about gathering the artwork from people across the country that Thomsen had given it to. Today, the collection is displayed as a whole at the Neihardt State Historic Site, thanks to the generosity of the Thomsen family.
Spirit of Crazy Horse
“It does not matter where his body lies, for it is grass; but where his spirit is, it will be good to be.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
Dying Crazy Horse
“In the dead of winter of 1877, Crazy Horse was asked to come and talk peace. Somewhat apprehensive, he went to Fort Robinson, for his people were freezing and starving. When he saw that he had been betrayed, he tried to escape, ‘And, leaping doorward, charged upon the world to meet the end. A frightened soldier hurled his weight behind a jabbing belly-thrust, and Crazy Horse plunged headlong into the dust, a writhing heap.’”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
The Rubbing Out of Long Hair
“General Custer was killed June 25, 1876, at the Little Big Horn in Montana, in the greatest victory over the white in the history of the Sioux Indian - but his ghost still inhabits the plains.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
The Horse Dance
“Then all the horses went into formation, four abreast—the blacks, the whites, the sorrels, and the buckskins—and stood behind the bay who turned now to the west and neighed; and yonder suddenly the sky was terrible with a storm of plunging horses in all colors that shook the world with thunder, neighing back.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
Black Elk Praying on Harney Peak
“It was the season of drought, one of the worst in the memory of the old men...Black Elk climbed to the summit of Harney peak to pray for his people, ‘Hear me in my sorrow, for I may never call again. O make my people live...’ For some minutes the old man stood silent with face uplifted, weeping in the drizzling rain. In a little while the sky was clear again.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
The Morning Star
“Then the daybreak star was rising, and a Voice said, ‘It shall be a relative to them; and who shall see, shall see much more, for thence comes wisdom and those who do not see it shall be dark.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
Crazy Horse Transcendent
“While he lived, especially during his last tortuous year, Crazy Horse proved to be one of the greatest Indian Chiefs. His spirit rises out of the blood-drenched snow, red with the blood of the butchered, defenseless Indians.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
The Black Road of Suffering
“Then the people broke camp again, and saw the black road before them towards where the sun goes down, and black clouds coming yonder; and they did not want to go but could not stay.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
The Creative Flame (Wakantanka)
“Still in a way that would have been a roar in this world, all at once the pines became the rushing up of something like white flame that spread and hovered at the top, and then dropped back with many limbs and fell again in burning showers, wonderful to see.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
Peace
“Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, mixed media
Tree of Life
“It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, pastel
The Sacred Herb of Understanding
“I saw it falling far, and when it struck the earth it rooted and grew and flowered, four blossoms on one stem, a blue, a white, a scarlet, and a yellow; and the rays from these streamed upward to the heavens so that all creatures saw it and inno place was there darkness.”
Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Artist F.W. Thomsen, oil