ART
What: E.J. Hughes: Works On Paper
Where: Madrona Gallery, 606 View St.
When: July 10-24
Information: madronagallery.com
Interest in the work of E.J. Hughes, which continues to rise in popularity and value, has reached unprecedented levels in recent years.
Those sitting on a Hughes original can expect a further return on their investment as an upcoming exhibition of work by the North Vancouver native, who called Duncan home until his death in 2007 at the age of 93, will only add to his legend.
E.J. Hughes: Works On Paper, which opens Saturday at Madrona Gallery on View Street, presents 16 pieces from a variety of sources, including Hughes’s estate, for the first Hughes exhibit of its kind in more than a decade. Interest has been high, with several of the pieces selling well in advance, according to Madrona Gallery owner Michael Warren.
“It’s pretty special for us to be able to do this, especially as a small gallery on Vancouver Island, ” Warren said. “This is the type of show that is nationally important.”
Works On Paper opens with attention from buyers and bystanders alike. Prices range from $5,000 to just over $100,000, which could prove to be a long-term steal for those with deep enough pockets. Many of the pieces in the exhibition — such as the watercolour, Houses, Qualicum Beach — have never been for sale publicly up to this point. A buyer from Vancouver has made the majority of purchases thus far, Warren said.
“Hughes definitely has recognition throughout North America. One of the paintings that we acquired privately, the previous owner lived in Switzerland. His work has ended up all over the globe.”
The rarity of the work being presented and the timing of the exhibition will make for a busy two weeks at the gallery. An event of this magnitude, coming on the heels of the recent provincial re-start, will have art professionals and passersby finding their way into the gallery at some point during the run.
While his paintings have become the stuff of local legend on the collecting front — Fish Boats, Rivers Inlet sold for $2 million at auction in 2018, with a further six Hughes originals selling for a combined $1.68 million last year — interest from the general public remains high. Once the work of an artist reaches unattainable levels, the public often loses interest. But that has not been the case with Hughes,Warren said.
“Part of the draw is that Hughes’s work is entirely unpretentious,” Warren said. “It’s about working people of British Columbia. Almost every Hughes painting has a human aspect to it, whether it’s a boat or a bridge.”
Hughes and Emily Carr are the most famous and influential painters ever to call Vancouver Island home. But they are wholly different, Warren said. “The separation between Hughes and Emily Carr, for me, is that Hughes shows how people interact with the landscape around them. Carr, in terms of her mature work, is about the power of nature unto itself.”
The lasting effects of the pandemic are not liable to dampen interest in Works On Paper, where foot traffic is concerned. Warren said the number of people through the doors in recent weeks has tripled, largely in anticipation of the exhibit, but also because travel bans have been eased.
Former Times Colonist art critic Robert Amos, Hughes’s official biographer, who was instrumental in Works On Paper, contributed to a hard-copy exhibition catalogue that will be for sale, adding yet another key element to the proceedings. Buyers abroad have their own means of viewing and purchasing the material, but some local patrons will choose to stay at home. And for that community Warren and gallery staff have come up with a solution.
Technological advancements in the area of online video kept the gallery in contact with guests and patrons throughout the shutdown, including those not living in Victoria. The gallery’s website goes live later this week with 3D cameras that will provide a virtual walk through of Works On Paper, in order to give context — and access — to the work. “I feel like the art world’s natural state is socially distanced,” Warren said with a laugh.
“Visual art has been able to adapt really well. We began using technology that, quite frankly, we already had but didn’t need to use because of the structure of how revenue was being generated.”
That approach has been forever altered, Warren said — and just in time to showcase a career retrospective years in the making.
“It is our great pleasure to provide a venue for people to come in an engage with us,” Warren said. “That is part of the social contract of being a commercial gallery in this city. We need to promote art to everybody.”
mdevlin@timescolonist.com
