Richard Charles Gilkey (December 20, 1925 – October 3, 1997) was an American painter, often associated with the '
Northwest School' of artists. During his long career he became one of the most acclaimed painters in the Pacific Northwest, with an original and highly distinctive style. He was particularly well known for his landscapes depicting the
Skagit Valley
The Skagit Valley lies in the northwestern corner of the state of Washington, United States. Its defining feature is the Skagit River, which snakes through local communities which include the seat of Skagit County, Mount Vernon, as well as Sed ...
in western
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
.
Early life
Gilkey was born in
Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham ( ) is the most populous city in, and county seat of Whatcom County in the U.S. state of Washington. It lies south of the U.S.–Canada border in between two major cities of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, British Columbia (locat ...
, on December 20, 1925, and spent his first six years in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, Canada, where his father worked in the logging industry as a timber cruiser, identifying and marking trees to be cut down. The family then returned to Washington's Skagit Valley region (where Gilkey's paternal great-grandfather and maternal grandfather had been early residents), living in March Point, a small town near
Anacortes
Anacortes ( ) is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. The name "Anacortes" is an adaptation of the name of Anne Curtis Bowman, who was the wife of early Fidalgo Island settler Amos Bowman.[Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...]
, where he and his brother Tom, who was two years older, attended
Ballard High School. There he enjoyed art classes with Orre Nobles, and showed an aptitude for sketching. This would be his only formal art education.
[Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art, by Deloris Tarzan Ament (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002)]
On December 8, 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack, Tom Gilkey enlisted in the Marine Corps, and Richard, at age 17, soon followed suit. He served in the
3rd Marine Raider Battalion
The Marine Raiders are special operations forces originally established by the United States Marine Corps during World War II to conduct amphibious light infantry warfare. " Edson's" Raiders of 1st Marine Raider Battalion and " Carlson's" Ra ...
, and was in heavy fighting on the island of Bougainville during the
Solomon Islands campaign
The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, du ...
. Wounded multiple times, he was discharged in August, 1944. He attempted to complete his education at Ballard High School, but left after two weeks.
Career
Gilkey worked a succession of jobs, including sailor, ranch hand, and logger,
while at the same time developing both an interest in art and a reputation as a barroom brawler. A private tour of the Seattle Art Museum offered by assistant director Ed Thomas had a profound effect on him, leaving him particularly moved by the works of
Guy Anderson
Guy Anderson (November 20, 1906 – April 30, 1998) was an American artist known primarily for his oil painting who lived most of his life in the Puget Sound region of the United States. His work is in the collections of numerous museums inc ...
,
Morris Graves
Morris Graves (August 28, 1910 – May 5, 2001) was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the Pacific Northwest to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as Mysticism, ...
, and
Mark Tobey
Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976) was an American painter. His densely structured compositions, inspired by Asian calligraphy, resemble Abstract expressionism, although the motives for his compositions differ philosophi ...
.
Years later, he wrote:
“The discovery of works by Anderson, Graves and Tobey in the Seattle Art Museum was a revelation and a turning point in my life. Here were paintings that addressed my concerns from very different points of view. Guy Anderson had painted the fallen parachutist, the wounded and damaged warrior, figures in rocks, in the sea and on the beach. Graves used personal symbols to indicate his feeling of the senselessness of war: birds, moons, gloves and urns. Tobey enmeshed figures, cities and worlds in threaded light and pointed to the unity of energy in all forms and deplored the egocentrism of warring nations. After meeting these artists, I gained from their encouragement, guidance and friendship".
With their encouragement, he opened a studio in Seattle's Skid Road area. In 1948 a $1,000 inheritance from his grandmother allowed him to spend four months touring the great museums of Europe; he was especially impressed by the works of
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
,
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...
, and
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...
. Returning to Seattle, he spent the next few years developing his painting style while living in a small apartment with fellow painter
Leo Kenney
Leo Kenney (1925–2001) was an American abstract painter, described by critics as a leading figure in the second generation of the 'Northwest School (art), Northwest School' of artists.
Youth
Kenney was born in Spokane, Washington (state), Wash ...
. He also became a fixture at the Blue Moon Tavern, the locus of Seattle's 'Beat' counterculture, near the University of Washington.
In 1954 Gilkey,
William Ivey, Ward Corley, and Jack Stangle were featured in a four-man show at the Seattle Art Museum.
In 1958 a Guggenheim Fellowship allowed him to spend a year traveling and studying in Europe. He spent several months in Ireland and Italy, and had a memorable, spontaneous encounter with
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
and his wife,
Jacqueline Roque
Jacqueline Picasso or Jacqueline Roque (24 February 1927 – 15 October 1986) was the muse and second wife of Pablo Picasso. Their marriage lasted 12 years until his death, during which time he created over 400 portraits of her, more than any of ...
.
On his return, Gilkey's art began to reach maturity. Unmoved by
Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
and the emerging
Pop Art of the 1960s, he began making regular painting trips to the Skagit Valley, primarily working outdoors. In 1975 he purchased and remodeled a studio house in the Skagit Flats. His origins in the area and the beauty of the region were reflected in his paintings. Over the course of his career, Gilkey developed a distinctive style that stimulated his intellectual curiosity. He sought answers about the nature of the Universe that were scientific rather than philosophical, and material rather than metaphysical. Later in his career, Gilkey turned to painting abstractions, using black and white to represent the ancient Chinese philosophy of yin and yang.
[Artist's biography: Richard Gilkey, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle]
/ref>
Although he now avoided barroom brawling, Gilkey remained a temperamental figure, well known for his disputes with gallery owners, curators, and critics, and for his dislike of the 'gallery system'. The first independent show of Gilkey's work, mounted by his longtime friend Janet Huston, took place in March 1977, at a space in downtown Seattle. After ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' art critic Richard Campbell expressed disapproval of his use of a private agent, an outraged Gilkey appeared at the newspaper's office, gave Campbell a tongue lashing, and overturned his desk before stalking out
In 1982, Gilkey's work was included in a show of Pacific Northwest artists at Osaka's National Museum of Art, along with art by George Tsutakawa
George Tsutakawa (February 22, 1910 – December 18, 1997) was an American painter and sculptor best known for his avant-garde bronze fountain designs.
Born in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, he was raised in both the United States ...
, Paul Horiuchi
Paul Horiuchi (April 12, 1906 – August 29, 1999) was an American painter and collagist. He was born in Oishi, Japan, and studied art from an early age. After immigrating to the United States in his early teens, he spent many years as a railro ...
, Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan
Kenneth Callahan (1905–1986) was an American painter and muralist who served as a catalyst for Northwest artists in the mid-20th century through his own painting, his work as assistant director and curator at the Seattle Art Museum, and his wr ...
, Morris Graves, Leo Kenney, Philip McCracken
Philip "Phil" McCracken (November 14, 1928 – June 6, 2021) was an American visual artist, who worked mainly in sculpture. Born in Bellingham, Washington, he graduated from the University of Washington in 1953, having interrupted his studies to se ...
, Mark Tobey, and other artists chosen for their interest in the Asian tradition. Wrote Gilkey:
"The Japanese nature spirit pervades many facets of life and becomes a celebration of nature, transformed through art. Artists have the potential to advance a heightened perception of reality and by this process enhance both art and living, which are one."
An automobile accident while on vacation in New Mexico in December 1984 left Gilkey with several crushed vertebrae. He was unable to paint for three years. Two years after that, his new works, representing his explorations of the nature of consciousness, were shown at Janet Huston's newly opened gallery in the Skagit Valley, and were greeted with critical acclaim, good sales, and an award from the Governor of the State of Washington.
On a day in early November that he described as "the best and the worst day of my life," Gilkey, 64, was named grand prize winner of the Osaka Triennale 1990 Exhibition, a juried competition with 30,000 entries from around the world. At 4 a.m. the same day, a levee on the Skagit River broke, flooding his Fir Island studio. Gilkey had to row a skiff out to his house to pick up a coat and the acceptance speech he'd written to fax to Osaka.
Death
In September 1997, Gilkey, who was already having heart trouble, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Shortly after the diagnosis, he drove to Jackson Hole
Jackson Hole (originally called Jackson's Hole by mountain men) is a valley between the Gros Ventre and Teton mountain ranges in the U.S. state of Wyoming, near the border with Idaho, in Teton County, one of the richest counties in the Unite ...
, Wyoming. Some time before noon on Friday, October 3, 1997, he parked his pickup truck on the side of a dirt road near the summit of 9,600-foot Togwotee Pass
Togwotee Pass (pronounced TOH-guh-tee) is a high mountain pass in the western United States, at an elevation of above sea level. On the Continental Divide in the Absaroka Mountains of northwestern Wyoming in Teton County, it is between ...
in the Grand Tetons
The Teton Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. It extends for approximately in a north–south direction through the U.S. state of Wyoming, east of the Idaho state line. It is south of Yellowstone National Park and ...
, and fatally shot himself. He was 71 years old. His body was found later that day by a forest ranger.
He left behind a note quoting the ''Meditations'' of Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good ...
: "This is the chief thing: Be not perturbed, for all things are according to the nature of the Universal, and in a little time you will be no one and nowhere."
Gilkey's paintings are included in many museum collections of the Pacific Northwest, including the Seattle Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...
. Gilkey also has work in many private and public collections, including the King County Arts Commission, ''The Seattle Times'', and Swedish Hospital in Seattle. A large three-panel mural – each panel measuring 6 feet by 20 feet – hangs on the fourth floor of the Washington State Convention Center, also in Seattle.The Galleries: Art at the Convention Center (PDF)
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilkey, Richard
1925 births
1997 deaths
20th-century American painters
American male painters
Ballard High School (Seattle, Washington) alumni
People from Bellingham, Washington
United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American male artists
American male sculptors
Painters from Seattle
Sculptors from Washington (state)
United States Marines
Artists who died by suicide
Suicides by firearm in Wyoming
1997 suicides