Regina Gilbert Outsider Artist or Flower Child? A Forgotten Primitive Painter

In 1956 Artnews referred to Regina Gilbert as "a sophisticated experimental primitive" and that  "Her eye has combined Henri-Edmond Cross and van Gogh."  Ten years later,  the Palm Beach Daily called her "the only living American primitive painter" which seems even more of an exaggeration. As far back as 1951, Newton Galleries were representing  Ms. Gilbert as "Brooklyn's most exuberant and imaginative primitive" in a press release.  A year earlier, a New York magazine called Cue reviewed a Gilbert show as "...another of those primitive painters who periodically invade the art galleries, this time a "Grandma Moses" of Brooklyn. Her floral paintings, gay, decorative and flat are particularly effective." Another paper once called her a flower child!

Regina Gilbert was born in Austria in 1907.  In the 1930's she immigrated to the United States and lived in New York city until the 1950s. Relocating to Palm Beach, Florida she continued to paint. Apparently an ardent self-promoter, the artist affixed numerous reviews and clippings of her work to the reverse of her paintings. 

Pair of Flower Paintings by Regine Gilbert  Oil on Board circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman