As Winchester Galleries celebrate 20 years of unparalleled success in the art business in Victoria, it’s a good time to look back at the history of this business.
Oak Bay Avenue and Fort Street diverge at a pinch point in the roadway that was, years ago, called “The Dardanelles.” There in the late 1970s a gallery opened in a small shop front with a tiny mezzanine, a locker for fur coats and not much parking.
Owner Paul Kyle was the son of Joseph Kyle, director of the Victoria College of Art, and he brought to the public’s attention artists associated with the college, such as Jack Wise, Jim Gordaneer, Bill Porteous, Toni Onley and Flemming Jorgensen. Kyle caught a rising tide of public attention, but after a few years went broke and his stock was seized by the bailiff.
Kyle’s picture-framer, Bernie Raffo, took over the business and renamed it the Winchester Gallery, after his hometown in England. Upon his retirement in 1994, the modestly successful gallery was purchased by Gunter Heinrich, a youngster from Nanaimo, whose previous experience had been driving the delivery van for his parents’ wholesale florist concern. With his partner, Anthony Sam, a music student who grew up in Victoria’s Chinatown, they suddenly and unexpectedly established what soon became one of the premier commercial art galleries in Canada.
Sam to this day quietly keeps things ticking, financially, from his back-room office (though his musical interest is attested to by various antique pipe organs in the mezzanine level). Heinrich is the front man — well-dressed, gregarious and never separated from his cellphone. I have often sat across from him at his ormolu-mounted inlaid French desk while he divides his attention between an urgent business call and showing me some remarkable art treasure. An original gouache by Piet Mondrian, a Whistler etching, a David Milne watercolour, an Emily Carr oil-on-paper or a Tom Thomson oil sketch — he knows how much a glimpse of these works of art nourishes me.
Heinrich obviously loves art. Back in the early days they said “it couldn’t be done” here, but even then Heinrich reminded me of what legendary Montreal dealer Walter Klinkhoff had told him: No matter if the gallery is on a mountaintop, if you have the best work they will seek you out. And so in 1997 the Winchester boys bought a bungalow at the far end of Oak Bay Village and employed respected Oak Bay architect Pamela Charlesworth to renovate it as a gallery. They invited Ottavio’s deli and café to move in next door.
With sculpture garden, fountain, elegant plantings and frequent opening parties, they raised the bar on retail for the whole village. Winchester became the cornerstone for a community that is redefining itself. No longer “more English than the English,” Oak Bay is now le boulevard des artistes.
As Heinrich excuses himself to take another phone call, I study the vitrine next to him, where his personal taste is on display. In the beginning, he had a passion for Venetian glass, but after some years he eventually owned just about everything he coveted. Recently, he switched his attention to Meissen, the earliest and finest German porcelain.
Noting my interest, he is eager to put down the phone and take out an 18th-century statuette of commedia dell’arte figures brought back from a recent “vacation” to Europe. The accompanying catalogue indicates this piece is not just museum quality, but a masterpiece, formerly in one of the world’s great collections.
But back to the business at hand. How does Winchester do it? By buying the inside cover of Canadian Art magazine, and a regular spot in the Globe and Mail, they put themselves on the map. By purchasing the materials they wanted outright — not on consignment — they then offered them at prices we never thought possible here in sleepy little Victoria.
They opened further venues in town, first on Broad Street, then on Humboldt Street (a convenient step from the Empress hotel) where the knowledgeable Peter Redpath manages Winchester Modern, and then another storefront nearby hosted by the personable Elizabeth Levinson. Heinrich’s sister, Linda Hensellek, has recently joined the staff at the Oak Bay Avenue location.
The gallery has also established a beachhead in the new Oak Bay Beach Hotel, and has been making its presence known at the Union Club. And everywhere, they keep up a bewildering array of openings and exhibits for artists local and national, to keep the public coming in the door. Such a high profile attracts artworks for resale from estates and on the secondary market, where the real money is made. Winchester also takes pains to cultivate relationships with senior artists of high reputation, to become their more or less exclusive representatives.
And through it all, in a business where the waters can be shark-infested, I have never known this gallery to put a foot wrong. Artists are promoted and paid; clients are treated patiently and respectfully; and the creative enterprise goes forward in new and exciting ways.
But enough about the history. Currently at both the Oak Bay headquarters and the downtown Modern venue, you’ll be treated to at least 130 beautiful works of art: Andy Warhol, A.Y. Jackson, Jack Shadbolt, Emily Carr (eight pieces in all), David Blackwood, William Perehudoff, Karl Appel, Robert Motherwell, Joseph Plaskett, Fenwick Lansdowne and his son Tristram — the list is ever-changing, carefully chosen and delightfully eclectic. Art lovers should consider themselves fortunate that this gallery makes its home in our city.
20/20: A Celebratory Exhibition at Winchester Galleries (2260 Oak Bay Ave. and 758 Humboldt St.), winchestergalleriesltd.com, 250-595-2777, until Oct. 25.