[1] Gilbertson was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1907 to a Norwegian-Russian family and spent much of his childhood with his grandparents outside Chicago, Illinois.
He began studies in physics at the University of Chicago but soon switched to art and enrolled at this School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
He married Genevieve Van Metre and they made their home in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
[2] Gilbertson moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1960.
Consequently, many are part of the General Services Administration collection and have been transferred to the holdings of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Gallery of Art.