Artist Michael Wilson opens new "One Man, One War, One Hundred Years" WWI Art Exhibition

By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, United States World War One Centennial Commission

In Flanders Fields, 30 x 24 inches, oil on linen.Michael Wilson is a visual artist, and a military veteran, who has created a remarkable new WWI-themed art exhibit that we previously wrote about, which will be showing at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa from September 15 – December 30, 2018. This work is endorsed as an official project of the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission, and the Iowa WWI Centennial Committee.

One Man, One War, One Hundred Years commemorates the 100th anniversary of the World War One armistice through the service of one – the artist’s Great Uncle Herbert Thordsen.

In 2012 Wilson’s cousin discovered a small leather datebook in which their great uncle logged dates and descriptions of his experiences serving in World War One. Knowing the centenary was approaching Wilson decided to build an exhibition around his great uncle.

“His entries were short but reading his words was like finally getting to have an adult a conversation with him about the war. The datebook entries were his side of the conversation and our discussions took place somewhere between the lines.”

Among the entries Thordsen records that he: “left New York the 3rd of May on the Carpathia”.

An online search reminded Wilson that the RMS Carpathia was the ship that rescued Titanic survivors. Wilson even found the ship’s roster for May 3, 1918 with his great uncle’s name on it.

Wilson used a World War One re-enactor to model as his great uncle and sometimes used himself (as a child in his Cub Scout uniform) to represent innocence. A mixed-media piece includes an authentic 1917 New York Times front page calling the nation to arms and another painting is based on the World War One poem In Flanders Fields by Lt. Col. John McCrae. Poppy imagery is used throughout the exhibition.

The exhibition includes 12 paintings but Wilson counts them as 11 paintings plus one. For Wilson the number 11 represents the Armistice’s 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month. The “plus one” painting is a historical genre piece that moves the viewer forward alluding to World War Two.

Artist Michael Wilson

Started Moving Again, 30 x 24 inches, oil on linen