Atencio, Gilbert

Gilbert Benjamin Atencio (1930-1995) of San Ildefonso Pueblo was a nephew of Maria Martinez. His mother was Maria’s sister, Isabel. Married to Benjamin Atencio, Isabel Montoya Atencio was a potter and easel painter, working with watercolors, crayon and pencil.

Gilbert was born in Greeley, CO, and was educated first at the San Ildefonso Day School, then at the Santa Fe Indian School. He grew up surrounded by some of the finest potters and painters in the Native American world. At Santa Fe Indian School, Gilbert studied drawing and painting. He was so good at it he was earning major awards for his work before he finished school. Then he graduated and enlisted in the US Marine Corps. After his honorable discharge Benjamin returned to San Ildefonso and got back to enjoying different aspects of his art.

As a potter, Benjamin made polychrome red-and-black-on-cream jars and cream-on-red bowls, plates and wedding vases. He was always painting something but he also branched into medical and technical illustration.

Gilbert was only out of the service a couple years when he was a participant in “An Exhibition of American Indian Painters” at the James Graham & Sons Gallery in New York. That same year some of his work was sent on a year-long (1955-1956) European Tour sponsored by the University of Oklahoma. The University of Oklahoma sent his work to Europe again on a tour that ran from 1958 to 1961.

Gilbert made and painted his own pottery but he also sometimes painted pottery for his mother. He earned numerous ribbons for his pottery at the Heard Museum Guild Indian Art Fair & Market, the New Mexico State Fair, the Philbrook Art Council (Tulsa, OK) and the Gallup InterTribal Ceremonial.

Gilbert’s pottery and artwork can be found in the collections of the Amerind Foundation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of the Interior, the Denver Art Museum, the Heard Museum, the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, the Museum of Northern Arizona, the School for Advanced Research, the Philbrook Museum of Art and others.

Gilbert said he was always inspired by the stories he heard from his tribal elders. The view of the world those stories told of impacted his life greatly. All his artwork was meant to be a reflection of the oral history, traditions and cultural life of San Ildefonso Pueblo. Gilbert even served as Pueblo Governor in 1966-1967. By the 1980s Gilbert’s work was becoming more and more abstract. He was still painting when he passed on in 1995.

Exhibits that Featured Gilbert’s Work

  • Place, Nations, Generations, Beings: 200 Years of Indigenous North American ArtYale University Art Gallery. New Haven, Connecticut. November 1, 2019 – June 21, 2020. Note: based on objects from the Yale University collections
  • A Century of Pueblo Painters: San Ildefonso Pueblo 1900-1999. Adobe Gallery. Santa Fe, New Mexico. March 3, 2017 – April 30, 2017. Group show and sale with the following artists: José Angela Aguilar, Gilbert Atencio, Popovi Da, Tony Da, Louis Gonzales, Julián Martinez, Richard Martinez, Santana Roybal Martinez, José Encarnacion Peña, Tonita Vigil Peña, Tony Pena, Alfonso Roybal, José Disiderio Roybal, Tonita Roybal, Abel Sanchez, Romando Vigil, and Tomacito Vigil
  • The Art of Ceremony: American Indian Painting in the 20th Century. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. April 2, 2011 – March 16, 2012
  • So Fine! Masterworks of Fine Art from the Heard Museum. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. 2002. November 2, 2002 – March 9, 2003
    Drawn From Memory: James T. Bialac Collection of Native American Art. Phoenix, AZ. February 4, 1996 – September 3, 1996
  • Our Art, Our Voices: Native American Cultural Perspectives. Stanford University Art Gallery. Stanford, California. September 26, 1995 – December 17, 1995. Note: celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Stanford American Indian Organization
  • Dancing Across Time: Indian Images of the Southwest. American Contemporary Arts. San Francisco, CA. July 7, 1995 – September 23, 1995
  • Sharing the Heritage: American Indian Art from Oklahoma Private Collections. Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art, Univ. of Oklahoma. June 9, 1994 – September 11, 1994
  • Rain. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. September 19, 1993 – July 1, 1995
  • Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors of the Twentieth Century. The Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. April 13, 1991 – July 28, 1991
  • Come Dance with Us. The Heritage Center. Red Cloud Indian School. Pine Ridge, SD (a touring exhibit, other sites unknown; 1990)
  • American Indian Artists: The Avery Collection and the McNay Permanent Collection. Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum. San Antonio, Texas. April 15, 1990 – June 17, 1990
  • Jean Seth Collects Art Auction. Jean Seth. Santa Fe, New Mexico. October 4, 1989 – October 15, 1989
  • When the Rainbow Touches Down. The Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. October 27, 1986 – April 14, 1987
  • Watercolors and Terry Bell. Economos Works of Art. Santa Fe, New Mexico. April 29, 1988 – May 15, 1988
  • Summer Rains/Winter winds, Native American Paintings from a Private New Jersey Collection. Montclair Art Museum. Montclair, NJ. September 22, 1985 – November 10, 1985
  • Native American Arts 81. Philbrook Art Center. Tulsa, Oklahoma. August 2, 1981 – September 6, 1981
  • 100 years of Native American Painting. Oklahoma Museum of Art. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. March 5, 1978 – April 16, 1978
  • Heard Museum Guild Indian Arts and Crafts Exhibit. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. November 24, 1973 – December 2, 1973
  • An Exhibition of American Indian Art 1920-1972–From the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Oscar Theony. The Art Center, Hastings College. Hastings, Nebraska. September 1, 1973 – September 30, 1973
  • The Dr. and Mrs. Oscar W. Theony Collection of Indian Paintings. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. September 1969 – October 1969
  • Gilbert Atencio, San Ildefonso Pueblo. Gallery of Indian Art, Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. March 29, 1969 – April 30, 1969. Note: exhibition selected and coordinated by Richard LeRoy; inaugural one-person show in the new Gallery of Indian Art, Heard Museum, which reopened with a formal dinner on March 26, 1969. Accompanied by a catalog with the cover title of “Gallery of Indian Art, Heard Museum”
  • The James T. Bialic Collection: Amerindian Paintings and Graphics. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. March 1967
  • Fourth Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition. Executive House. Scottsdale, AZ. February 27, 1965 – March 7, 1965
  • Selected Works of Indian Artists Represented in Butler Collection. The Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. 1965
  • Second Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition. Executive House. Scottsdale, AZ. March 1, 1963 – March 10, 1963
  • 17th Annual American Indian Artists Exhibition. Philbrook Art Center. Tulsa, Oklahoma. May 1, 1962 – May 31, 1962
  • 16th Annual American Indian Artists Exhibition. Philbrook Art Center. Tulsa, Oklahoma. May 2, 1961 – May 31, 1961
    An Exhibit of Paintings by Noted Indian Artists of the Southwest at the Heard Museum. Heard Museum. Phoenix, AZ. February 10, 1952 – February 14, 1952
  • Paintings by American Indians. California Palace of the Legion of Honor. San Francisco. 1962 January 27, 1962 – March 4, 1962
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