Thomas Berger Johnson (1890 – January 1968) was a Nebraska artist, Post-Impressionist painter, metal sculptor, and draftsman. He was known to use bold impasto, juxtaposing colors to create movement and an almost shimmering effect, in paintings that represent Nebraska locations. Most of his work, donated by his widow, is in housed at the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Nebraska State Historical Society found the work important because his paintings represented places in Nebraska accurately, including some that no longer existed.

Early life

Thomas Johnson's father Hjalmar Johnson was a Swedish immigrant who worked as a stationary engineer at a large hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. He married Christina Maddison, a pastry cook. Thomas was the second son of the family of five, born in 1890. Johnson's first interest in art was sparked by his father, a craftsman who sketched and built ship models. When Thomas Johnson was a second-grader at the Mason Street School in Omaha, Emma Wheatley, the principal, noted his talent and gave him special instruction on art. When Tom was ten years old his father died of malaria. He was sent to live with his mother's brother Louis O. Aker, on a farm near Harvard, Nebraska. At 16 he rejoined his mother, sisters, and grandmother in Stanton, Iowa. To make money for the family he worked at Eklofs Blacksmith Shop in Valley, Nebraska.

Education At age 31 he enrolled in the Department of Fine Arts, Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, 1921-1923. He studied painting, drawing, and art history, under instructor Dr. Birger Sandzén, who influenced Johnson's style. Johnson's style was impressionistic with heavy impasto. In an article in the Omaha World-Herald magazine, in November 1969, art critic Leonard Thiessen wrote,

“His painting shows the impressionistic, heavy-impasto handling favored by the anti-establishment "Konstnaersforbundent" group in Stockholm, with which Sandzen was allied before emigrating to the U.S."

In 1923-1934, he studied at the Broadmoor Academy of Art, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, taking drawing from life with instructor Robert Reid. Johnson would go back to Bethany College in 1924-1925 to gain his Artist's Certificate, on June 4, 1925. He also studied at the Minneapolis School of Art, Minnesota, from 1926-1927.

Career and later life In 1930 Thomas Berger took a course in welding at the University of Nebraska and worked for the laboratory division for the agricultural engineering department. He worked on a tractor testing lab or motor lab. He made equipment for testing oil filters and he was listed as a co-author of a publication describing the devices. During this time he began to use his knowledge of welding to make sculptures from ornamental iron. He forged vases, lamps, lamp bases, candlesticks, and weather vanes. He used metal from iron bars, and old car parts. His sculpture titled The Phoenix (Phoenix) was composed of quarter-inch bars of iron twisted together to suggest a bird. It is high with a light bulb at the top in the plumage of the bird. His metal sculptures were described in the Omaha World-Herald magazine, in November 1969, as reminiscent of Art Nouveau and prophetic of psychedelic design.

In 1937, Thomas B. Johnson married Fay Sherwin from Harvard, Nebraska. On her mother's side, she was related to Lewis Moffitt, founder of Seward, Nebraska.

Drawings Around 1940, Thomas B. Johnson's Christian religious beliefs inspired a series of drawings about African Americans that dealt with themes of spirituality and race. One was All God’s Children Got Wings, a pencil drawing of 1944. It depicts a group of African Americans as angels. He wrote a poem to accompany it, a common practice for his drawings. The poem reads:

All God's children got a robe, I'm going to put on my robe and shout all over God's Heaven. All God's children got wings, I'm going to put on my wings, and a'fly all over God's Heaven."1"

His last series was on Native American spiritual beliefs. The series was unfinished due to his death. One of his last drawings was Shadow, in pencil, from 1962, depicting a silhouette of a Native American. The accompanying poem reads:

The spirit is the only REALITY. All else is but the shadow of REALITY.”

Retirement In February 1956 the Johnsons moved to Seward, and Thomas Johnson retired from the University of Nebraska. Johnson continued painting and drawing, and shared a space with Anton Pearson, a close friend and a woodcarver from Lindsborg, Kansas.

After his death In January 1968, Thomas Johnson died at 78, leaving behind 40 canvases, numerous ironwork sculptures, drawings, and block prints. After Mrs. Johnson donated the art to The Nebraska State Historical Society, Thomas Johnson's views on art were revealed in his notes. He believed his drawings were “of and for the people,” not for a “select few.” Dolores Gunnerson, writing for the Nebraska State Historical Society, claims that his local scenes show an appreciation of his surroundings and identification with the people he painted, because he was born in Omaha and worked as a blacksmith and a farm hand.

In 1969 his work was shown at the Koenig Art Gallery at Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska. Two of his paintings were showcased on PBS's Antiques Roadshow in 2016, where they were appraised at six to eight thousand dollars each by Betty Krulick.

List of works These are some of the works of art that are held by the Nebraska State Historical Society.

Paintings Paintings include:Paintings

Good Afternoon Ma'am, oil, 1928 Street Scene, oil, 1938 Sentinel, oil, 1942 Timber Line, oil, 1942 Mirror, oil, 1944 Kansas City Bluffs, oil, 1945 Patron Saint of Beggars, oil, 1946 Ore Mill, oil, 1946 Cathedral Spires, oil, 1947 Glen Eyre, oil, 1948 Pastoral, oil, 1949 Natural Bridge, oil, 1950 Pioneer Cabin, oil, 1951 Tapestry, oil, 1951 Low Sun, oil, 1953 Lake of the Ozarks, oil, 1957 Reflections, oil, 1957 Bayou Reflections, oil, 1960 River Dwellers, oil, 1960 As the Wind Blows, oil, 1962 Patriarchs, oil, 1962 Sky Towers, oil, 1964 Cliffs, oil, 1964 Tipton's Barn, oil, 1964 Sioux River, oil, 1965,

Drawings Drawings include:Drawings

Today Shalt Thou Be With Me in Paradise, charcoal, 1952 Hill Top, pencil, 1932 Crow Ghost, pencil, 1967 Fertility Cults - Butterfly, pencil, 1966 The Swallow Clan, pencil, 1966 The Star Maiden, pencil, 1967 Baptismal, pencil, 1967 Footprints I Have Made, pencil, 1967 Mother Corn, pencil, 1967 Ode to the Pasque Flower, pencil, 1967 Roll the Old Chariot Along, pencil, 1946 Just a Closer Walk with Thee, pencil, 1945 My Lord's A-Writing' All the Time, pencil, 1946 Hold the Light, pencil, 1946 Keep Me From Sinking Down, pencil, 1944 When I'm Dead, pencil, 1951 O' Rocks Don't Fall on Me, pencil, 1944 Go Down Death, pencil, 1944 Pastoral, pencil, 1949 Was Moses Like That, pencil, undated He is Not Here For He is Risen/They Took the Money and Did As They Were Taught, pencil, 1943 Descent From the Cross, pencil, 1943 I Am Innocent of the Blood of This Just Person, See Ye To It, charcoal, 1942 Jesus Being Taken to Tomb, charcoal, 1942

Block prints Block prints include:Block Prints

Bock and Tree - Balzak, block print, undated Eroded Knoll, block print, 1963 Tree-Wyoming, block print, undated End of Ridge, block print, undated Rock and Tree - Balzak, block print, undated Line Pine, block print, undated Slit Rock and Mulberry, block print, undated Shoes or Portrait of the Johnsons, block print, 1965 Rock Ridge - South Dakota, block print, 1963 Rock and Pine Tree, block print, undated

Metal works Metal works include:Metal Works

Phoenix, iron, c. 1935 Ewer, iron, c. 1935 Lamp, iron, c. 1935

References