The estate of Claire Thompson, who died in September 2021, has donated an extensive collection of work by her late husband, William J. Thompson, to Brenau University Galleries.
The collection consists of thirty-one works on paper and thirty-seven sculptures by William J Thompson, as well as archival photographic enlargements of
commissions and sculptures.
Thompson’s Catholic faith was a source of inspiration in his art. Included in the PROPERTY are two of his earliest sculptures, both from the 1950’s Madonna and Child, 1950 and Moses, 1950-52, when he was living in Providence, Rhode Island. Thompson’s early sculptures
show the strong influence of Henry Moore. Moore was a figurative artist first and then as an abstractionist. His sculptures express the ideas that humanity is part of nature and that through our senses we can become connected to something timeless and
universal.
In 1954, Thompson moved to Columbus, Ohio where he became a professor at Ohio State University until 1964 when he was invited to join the faculty at the University of Georgi’s School of Art. Portrait of Young Woman, 1960 is a small Patinated Plaster Cast Thompson used for a class demonstrating as an instructor at Ohio State University. Other 1960 sculptures from his tenure at Ohio State include Samurai Angel, 1960, Angel Tango, 1960, and Crucifix, 1962. Stylistically these sculptures show Thompson’s influences widen to include Ernst Barlach, Auguste Rodin, and Georges Henri Rouault.
While in Ohio Thompson produced two important large sculptures, Christ the King and Susanna and the Elders. And, as a member of The Liturgical Art Guild, an organization that brought together architects, artists, and clergy for the purpose of promoting the creation of excellent contemporary church art, Thompson was commissioned to create many sculptures for the Church. One of these commissions was a series of Portal High Relief Sculptures for the Congregational Church in Columbus, and another a 38ft high limestone relief on the façade of St. Christopher’s Church also
in Columbus.
The 1970’s and 1980’s were fruitful years for Thompson as he experiments with new forms and grew in artistic outlook. Most of the works in the PROPERTY are from this period. Thompson sculptures and works on paper continued to be guided by the artistic influences of Rodin, Barlach and Jacob
Epstein.
Thompson’s most important commission came about in 1974, when President Jimmy Carter announced a national competition to select a sculpture to create a Georgia Memorial for the Andersonville National Prison Park and Historical Site near Americus, where Union soldiers who had fallen in the Civil War were imprisoned and where they died. With little time to prepare, Thompson submitted a photo of a small model of a group of prisoners of war, a haunting depiction of the degradation and suffering of prisoners of war; he won the competition unanimously. The sculpture was dedicated on Memorial Day of 19763. Two patinated plaster reliefs from the Memorial, Segment Head of a Central Figure, and Head of a Hooded Figure, are included in the collection.
There are seven portrait plaster casts used in commissions to commemorate luminaries such as Robert W Woodruff, 1983, Lamar Dodd, 1972, Hubert Owen, 1973, Eugene Odum, 1981, Sam Kauffman. 1979, Louis Griffith, 1973, and Gudmund Vigtel, 1974, for their contributions to the University of Georgia or the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia. The works on paper consist of etchings, lithographs, ink drawings, and watercolors. Although Thompson made a name for himself as a sculptor, Thompson was also a master of the drawing line. During his career, [he] consistently emphasized the importance of draughtsmanship.
Thompson employed drawings to get ideas for sculpture. HIs works on paper inspired by Rouault. Georges Rouault was a French artist whose work melded Fauvism and Expressionism with its jewel-like tones and bold graphic lines. Rouault was fervently religious, and his works touch upon contemporary considerations of mysticism and spiritualism.
In 1986 an illness left Thompson temporarily too weak to do sculpture. He used this time to begin a series of etching characterized by very competent draughtsmanship. One was a series illustrating the major events in the birth and fall of Adam and Eve and the divine promise to come, as well as several other themes, Adam and Eve Story, 1986-87 a suite of 17 Etchings on Paper. Another work included an edition of a pair of etchings, Father Adam, and Mother Eve, commissioned by the University of Georgia Office of the Vice President of Research. Editions of these works are included in the collection.
On the strength of these etchings, Thompson was invited to collaborate with a team of art printers at the University of Georgia’s School of Art to produce an unbound portfolio book of etchings printed on handmade paper and enclosed in a handmade paper cover. The project was titled, Psalm 91, which is included in the collection. The etching series was an opportunity for Thompson to interpret what he saw was a moving and profound expression of man’s dependence on his Maker. It would be a limited edition of twenty. After the edition pages were completed, Thompson was strong enough to view the printed images. Unfortunately, Thompson passed away before the work was completed.
