What: The Last Picture Show
When: Oct. 12 through Oct. 19
Where: Studio 553, 553 1/2 Fisgard St.
The initial hope was that Bert Vandergugten would have the strength to attend tonight’s opening reception for The Last Picture Show, an exhibit of the Victoria artist’s poems, paintings and sculptures.
But the craftsman born Albert Jan Leonard Vandergugten could no longer fight the rapidly progressing cancer in his lungs, and his condition worsened in recent weeks. Vandergugten died on Oct. 3. He was 75.
“It was looking like he was probably going to make it to around Christmastime,” said his son, Montreal painter Nicholas Vandergugten. “But it changed, and it was very obvious he was not going to make the show at all. It happened very fast.”
The showcase of Bert Vandergugten’s wide-ranging work will fill the gallery at Studio 533 in Chinatown, steps from his longtime residence at 549 1/2 Fisgard St.
It was there, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, that Vandergugten found himself surrounded by a collective of now-legendary Chinatown artists, including Luis Merino, Laird Campbell and D’Arcy Gould.
He learned a great deal about both the creation and commerce of art during the nine years he spent in Chinatown, and his pencil-on-paper drawings from that era hinted at his future work after he moved his family to Langford.
“Moving had a lot to do with having two kids that were young,” Nicholas Vandergugten said. “Chinatown was pretty wild at that time. My parents were interested in extricating [Nicholas and his brother, Zac] from that.”
Bert Vandergugten’s oil paintings chronicle everything from Fan Tan Alley parties to shipyard workers having lunch, and were often done on wood. One of his paintings, Three Sided Question, was constructed on an old Chinatown door.
Though his oil paintings capture Metchosin at sunset, local beaches and the downtown Victoria skyline, he was also an excellent sculptor who worked in both metal and wax.
Chinatown was his muse, to a degree, and his art will live on in the neighbourhood for years to come. He created out of iron the red gate in Fan Tan Alley, and planted what is now a tall tree in the alley’s courtyard, to mark Nicholas Vandergugten’s birth.
The Last Picture Show will no doubt stir memories for his friends and longtime supporters; his work harkens to a world that no longer exists in this city, but remains a point of interest for many.
Nicholas will miss his father’s eternal optimism.
“There was always time for everything,” he said.
“Everything was always going to happen, even towards the very end. But when he got older, it was a little bit hard to do the work and find the space.
“His skill was being content with what was in front of him. He was happy as long as he had something to work on.”
