Beckett Fine Art: A family legacy
Locke Street South gallery is marking a century and three generations of making an impact in the arts in Hamilton.
What’s the secret to keeping a family business running for over 100 years?
Trusting your gut.
“Tastes change, and trends change. I don’t really follow that kind of thing,” says Tom Beckett, owner of Beckett Fine Art, which is celebrating a century-long family legacy in the arts this year.
“I just follow my own heart and my own eye. I’ve been doing it my whole life,” says Beckett. “Every art dealer runs their own gallery the way they want to run it. We’re all individual, peculiar people and artists, in our own right. We just run it the way we feel from the art.”
Beckett, 65, represents three generations of artistic entrepreneurship in the community and a deeply rooted family legacy in Hamilton.
In 1925, Beckett’s great-grandfather, celebrated Hamilton photographer and musician Hubert Beckett, opened Beckett Gallery as a portrait studio. Located near the corner of James Street South and Bold Street, the space included a portrait studio and darkroom on the lower level with living quarters for the family upstairs.
Hubert Beckett left his mark on the city, photographing thousands of Hamiltonians over his illustrious career. His huge collection of negatives, along with one of his portrait cameras, is now kept at the Hamilton Public Library.
Hubert Beckett’s son and Tom Beckett’s father, Thomas Beckett, joined the studio and worked alongside his father for almost 30 years before deciding to transform it into a commercial art gallery, considered a relatively risky move at the time.
Art galleries were few and far between in Hamilton in the 1960s, but the grand opening put Beckett Gallery on the map. With Hubert having shot the who’s who of the city, the gallery had A-List guests in attendance as well as Mayor Vic Copps to cut the ribbon.
As an art dealer, Thomas Beckett was a trailblazer. He helped launch the career of beloved wildlife painter Robert Bateman. Decades later, the gallery began working with Alan Bateman, Robert’s son.
Thomas Beckett also introduced a number of new artists to the city, specifically Indigenous creators. At the time, Indigenous art was seen as merely “craft” and not worthy of being elevated to the status of fine art.
“(He’d call) the National Gallery, the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario), the Art Gallery of Hamilton, saying you’ve got to get in here, have a first-look show and have some pieces in your collection,” says Beckett. “And they’d say, ‘No.’ I heard this numerous times, ‘No, that’s not art. You need to phone the Royal Ontario Museum.’ You know, it just makes your head explode.”
“But the world and Canada have woken up,” says Beckett. “And through education and time, now they’re playing catch up.”
Beckett recounts the deep respect his father had for Indigenous culture. As a young family, they would attend pow-wows and visit local artists, and while his dad would talk business, Beckett remembers coming face to face with Indigenous art in the making.
“I remember walking into a shack on Six Nations, watching some old fella carving away. It planted a seed in me,” says Beckett. “We were taught respect. And that really wasn’t the case during the time.”
Beckett started collecting art at the age of 16. He went to shows, met artists and fell in love with the scene.
“When I saw a piece that I wanted to buy, it made my blood move faster through my body,” says Beckett. “It was really a physical thing.”
In 1984, Beckett officially joined the Beckett Gallery. He continued to work with his father until Thomas Beckett eventually retired and sold the building on James Street South in 1998 after it had remained in the family for more than 70 years.
Beckett moved to Vancouver and opened up Beckett Fine Art in the Four Seasons Hotel, his own gallery that would carry on the visual arts legacy of his family. After three years, he relocated back to Ontario, opening up shop in Toronto’s trendy Yorkville neighbourhood, where the gallery operated for 15 years. When the building was sold in 2016, Beckett had to find a new home for the gallery.
And it brought him back to where it had all started: Hamilton.
“This is where my ancestors go back four generations,” says Beckett.
Beckett felt a calling to the Kirkendall neighbourhood, specifically Locke Street.
“A lot of people, when they come to Hamilton, they come to Locke Street. I call it the friendliest street in Hamilton,” says Beckett. “When I came back to Hamilton, I looked for (a new gallery space) for two years. And I kept coming back to this exact spot.”
Today, the gallery, located at 196 Locke St. S., features predominantly Canadian art. Beckett estimates about 95 per cent of the art sold is by Canadian artists (a recent uptick thanks to Elbows Up-fuelled patriotism). Local representation is also strong, with Hamilton artists accounting for roughly 60 per cent of sales, according to Beckett.
And of course, the gallery features a number of local and national Indigenous artists, including sculptors David General and Joseph Jacobs, as well as Hamilton icon Tom Wilson and celebrated painter Arthur Shilling. They appear alongside other notable Canadian artists in the gallery, such as Tom Thomson, Robert Bateman, and Frank Shirley Panabaker.
But Beckett isn’t just interested in celebrating established artists. He is passionate about supporting the next generation of great Indigenous creators and giving them a platform for their work.
One of those up-and-coming artists is Hamilton’s Kyle Joedicke.
A former graffiti artist, Joedicke parlayed his deftness with a paint can into stunning commissioned murals.
Beckett saw Joedicke’s work on Instagram and was immediately inspired.
“I just thought, ‘Wow, this is incredible work.’ But, well, I can’t sell his walls. So I phoned him up and said, ‘I love what you’re doing. Would you ever consider painting on canvas? Maybe we can do something together.’”
That phone call changed everything for Joedicke.
“Tom has been one of the strongest voices of support from the very beginning of my art career,” says Joedicke. “Working with him has really helped me raise my profile as an artist.”
Joedicke, 32, is a Cayuga Woodland artist from Caledonia, whose art is heavily influenced by his Haudenosaunee heritage.
He’s a self-taught artist and had painted a few local murals (at the former Merk Snack Bar and the Ottawa Street Market) before he was discovered by Beckett.
There are now a number of collectors that are actively seeking new pieces he creates, which he says has helped legitimize his craft. For Joedicke, the network and community that Beckett’s representation offers is invaluable.
“Tom’s family and the legacy of the Beckett Gallery have put a really heavy focus on supporting Indigenous artists,” says Joedicke. “Not just keeping up the legacies of previous Indigenous artists that have made it in the fine art world, but they’ve always supported younger and up-and-coming artists, too.”
Since their partnership, Joedicke has worked with the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund, McMaster University and Mohawk College. His work also features at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and his latest commission is a mural at a youth lodge at Six Nations.
“After my first conversation with Tom, I really connected with him on a personal level,” says Joedicke. “It didn’t really feel like it was an institution of art. It felt like I was having a conversation with someone who is genuinely interested in the preservation of the craft.”
Beckett’s role as a steward of the arts has not gone unnoticed. This year, he was nominated for a Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing the incredible impact he’s had on the arts community in the city. Though he didn’t bring home the award, he said it was an honour just to be recognized.
As he looks ahead, Beckett says he can’t rule out a fourth generation taking on the business.
“I’m going to keep going as long as I can,” says Beckett. “My daughter Lucy finished a degree at Concordia in art history. Who knows what she’ll do? But the door is open.”
