Gendron Jensen Pictorial Collection
Collection
Identifier: PICT-000-1068
Scope and Contents
Collection consists primarily of photographs of Gendron Jensen, family, friends, acquaintances, and artwork. Artwork focuses on bones.
Dates
- 1940-2009
Creator
- Jensen, Gendron (Person)
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Copy Restrictions
Limited duplication of CSWR material is allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for compliance with all copyright, privacy, and libel laws. Permission is required for publication or distribution. For more information see the Photographs and Images Research Guide and contact the Pictorial Archivist.
Biographical Information
Gendron Lloyd Jensen, "The Boneman," was born December 15, 1939 in River Falls, Wisconsin. Known in his early years to the family as "Butch", he was the second of nine children born to Lloyd Winfred Jensen and Helen Hyacinth Gendron, whose partial Ojibway heritage had a notable influence on his artistic sensibilities. At the age of 19 he entered a Benedictine monastic novitiate in Wisconsin.
Jensen's deep attachment to spiritual principles, fellow seminarians, and teachers encountered during his monastic years are profoundly evident in his subsequent art and prolific, poetic personal correspondence. Jensen joined the U.S. Navy at age 21, but was soon discharged because of an emotional breakdown. In 1963, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota, Duluth where he immersed himself into art courses and exhibits. After his studies, he returned to the Benedictine monastery to work in its print shop. In his spare time, he began collecting tiny objects from nature, which he would draw with pencil or pen and ink. His first serious work, "Inside Tillie," was produced in the late 1960s.
He spent the next few years in near isolation on an abandoned mink farm south of Grand Rapids, producing most of the works in series. In the late 1970s, he began work on "Seedpod," a multifaceted project calling for the construction of three interconnected dome pods. The domes were to represent cranial, thoracic, and pelvic sections of animals, ranging thirty to sixty feet in diameter.
In 1986, Jensen left Minnesota for a research fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution, where he worked extensively with the bones of whales, which he called "relics." During the 1980s, Jensen met artist Christine Taylor Patten. After a short, intense correspondence, he joined her in the Taos, New Mexico area where they were married on August 15, 1987.
Over the course of his career, Jensen exhibited in numerous venues, published many drawings in books and journals, was appointed a research colleague at the Smithsonian Institution, and was well-known in the art world. He maintained lifelong, generation-spanning friendships and correspondence with family friends, art dealers, publishers, patrons, and monastic practitioners. Gendron Jensen died on July 23, 2019 in Vadito, New Mexico.
Jensen's deep attachment to spiritual principles, fellow seminarians, and teachers encountered during his monastic years are profoundly evident in his subsequent art and prolific, poetic personal correspondence. Jensen joined the U.S. Navy at age 21, but was soon discharged because of an emotional breakdown. In 1963, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota, Duluth where he immersed himself into art courses and exhibits. After his studies, he returned to the Benedictine monastery to work in its print shop. In his spare time, he began collecting tiny objects from nature, which he would draw with pencil or pen and ink. His first serious work, "Inside Tillie," was produced in the late 1960s.
He spent the next few years in near isolation on an abandoned mink farm south of Grand Rapids, producing most of the works in series. In the late 1970s, he began work on "Seedpod," a multifaceted project calling for the construction of three interconnected dome pods. The domes were to represent cranial, thoracic, and pelvic sections of animals, ranging thirty to sixty feet in diameter.
In 1986, Jensen left Minnesota for a research fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution, where he worked extensively with the bones of whales, which he called "relics." During the 1980s, Jensen met artist Christine Taylor Patten. After a short, intense correspondence, he joined her in the Taos, New Mexico area where they were married on August 15, 1987.
Over the course of his career, Jensen exhibited in numerous venues, published many drawings in books and journals, was appointed a research colleague at the Smithsonian Institution, and was well-known in the art world. He maintained lifelong, generation-spanning friendships and correspondence with family friends, art dealers, publishers, patrons, and monastic practitioners. Gendron Jensen died on July 23, 2019 in Vadito, New Mexico.
Extent
558 items (1 box) : 549 photographs, 3 contact sheets, 4 post cards, 1 self portrait, 1 album containing 133 photographs
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Collection consists primarily of photographs of Gendron Jensen, family, friends, acquaintances, and artwork.
Separated Material
Pictorial material separated from Gendron Jensen Papers (MSS 1068).
Creator
- Jensen, Gendron (Person)
- Title
- Finding Aid of the Gendron Jensen Pictorial Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- B. Silbergleit
- Date
- © 2023
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is in English
Repository Details
Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository
Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu