Gordon W. Gilkey

Gordon W. Gilkey

Gilkey, Gordon W.

printmaker

curator

Northwest artist

Oregon artist

Gordon Waverly Gilkey was a printmaker, teacher, collector, and curator. He graduated from Albany College, which is now Lewis & Clark College, in 1933 and obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Oregon in 1936. He served in World War II in a special division dedicated to locating and returning art confiscated by the Nazis and to confiscating Nazi propaganda.

Gilkey spent the majority of his career teaching printmaking at Oregon State University. He amassed a large collection of prints, primarily by trading work with his colleagues. When he retired in 1978, Gilkey became curator of prints and drawings at the Portland Art Museum and professor and printmaker in residence at the Museum Art School, which is now known as the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Over the course of many years, he donated more than 10,000 prints and drawings from his personal collection to the Museum. Gilkey was crucial in building awareness for and appreciation of works on paper, and was instrumental in creating proper storage and viewing spaces for the graphic arts. In 1993, the Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts was inaugurated at the Museum.

As an artist, Gilkey is best known for his etchings. He worked in both representational as well as abstract styles throughout his career, and was an early practitioner of computer-assisted art.

Male

son: Gordon Spencer Gilkey (American, active 20th century)

sister: Helen M. Gilkey (American, active 20th century)

Associate of: Sekino Jun'ichirō (Japanese, 1914–1988)

Melville T. Wire (American, 1877-1966)