Birch & Pine

Gordon Waverly Gilkey

This early etching of birches and pines by Gordon Waverly Gilkey was done around 1940, probably in proofs only. This dedicated proof is from the estate of Joseph Allen, State Director of the California WPA Federal Art Project.

Gordon Gilkey was a professor at and later dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University. Upon his retirement in 1977, he donated his expansive collection of prints and drawings to the Portland Museum of Art. He became the museum’s curator of Prints and Drawings and the Printmaker in Residence at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon.

In 1993, he and his wife founded the Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Center for the Graphic Arts at the Portland Museum of Art.

Gordon Gilkey died in 2000, but his legacy remains an important part of the Portland and national print world.