Boris Gilbertson Explained

Boris Gilbertson
Birth Date:	1907
Death Date:	1982
Death Place:	Santa Fe, New Mexico
Nationality:	American
Training:	Art Institute of Chicago

Boris Gilbertson (1907–1982) was an American sculptor.^[1]

Early years

Gilbertson was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1907 to a Norwegian-Russian family and spent much of his childhood with his grandparents outside Chicago, Illinois. He began studies in physics at the University of Chicago but soon switched to art and enrolled at this School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He married Genevieve Van Metre and they made their home in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.^[2]

Gilbertson moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1960. He died in 1982.

Work

Much of Gilbertson's work consisted of sculpted reliefs that were commissions for public buildings, including post office buildings, courthouses and government buildings. Consequently, many are part of the General Services Administration collection and have been transferred to the holdings of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Gallery of Art.^[3] His most famous work may be his reliefs in the interior of the Department of the Interior's Main Interior Building in Washington DC.

Selected public artworks

• Birds and Animals of the Northwest (1937), eleven limestone reliefs, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, post office^[4]
• Wild Ducks (1940), four aluminum panels for the post office in Janesville, Wisconsin, now at the newer Janesville post office building
• American Moose (1939), limestone relief – Main Interior Building, Washington DC^[5]
• American Bison (1939), limestone relief – Main Interior Building, Washington DC^[6]
• Cow and Calf (1943) black walnut relief sculpture for Macomb, Illinois Post Office, now in Smithsonian American Art Museum collection^[7]
• Chess Pavilion (1957), game boards, incised carvings, reliefs and freestanding sculptures for open-air structure in Chicago's Lincoln Park^[8]

References

Selected sources

• White, Charlotte, Greatness in the Commonplace: The Art of Boris Gilbertson Sunstone Press, January 1, 1988

External links

• Oral history interview with Boris Gilbertson (June 25, 1964), Archives of American Art

Notes and References

1. Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=1804
2. Directory of Living Alumnae of Sweet Briar College, 1940, Sweet Briar College, page 75 https://archive.org/details/directoryoflivin1940unse
3. Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=9084
4. Engendering culture, by Barbara Melosh, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991, p. 261
5. Engendering culture, by Barbara Melosh, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991, p. 261
6. Engendering culture, by Barbara Melosh, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991, p. 261
7. Web site: Cow and Calf (completed relief sculpture for Macomb, Illinois Post Office; never installed) by Boris Gilbertson / American Art. americanart.si.edu. 2017-09-06.
8. Web site: Chess Pavilion . . December 18, 2022 .