Andrew Gruft remembered as a major figure in both architecture and photography
The Polygon Gallery launches new fund for photo exhibitions in his honour
ANDREW GRUFT, a prominent member of the Canadian architectural community and a major collector of photographic art, has died at 84.
His Jewish family fled Poland with him and his siblings in 1939, eventually ending up in South Africa, where Gruft grew up and would go on to graduate in architecture from Cape Town University (and where he’d develop a lifelong love of mountaineering). He later worked in architecture in Rio de Janeiro and Vancouver; some of his most well-known buildings are those he designed, while at Rhone & Iredale Architects, for the WAC Bennett Dam on the Peace River. He went on to join the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture as a professor.
Gruft and his wife Claudia Beck, whom he met as a fellow instructor at UBC, also came to play a major role in the collection, curation, and exhibition of photography in this city—an art form for which Vancouver is now renowned.
Together, Beck and Gruft established the West Coast’s first commercial gallery dedicated to photography; their NOVA Gallery, launched in 1972, showed everyone from Jeff Wall to Fox Talbot over the next decade.
Their collection was the focus of the Vancouver Art Gallery’s 2005 exhibition Real Pictures: Photographs from the Collection of Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft, which was coupled with a publication (at right). Beck and Gruft also donated more than 550 works from their photo collection to the VAG; as recently as early 2020, the VAG announced that it had been gifted 36 artworks by 26 artists from the couple, including 19th-century practitioners Henri Béchard, Samuel Bourne, James McDonald, and Auguste Salzmann, as well as influential artists such as Eugène Atget, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Lee Friedlander, and Alfred Steiglitz.
“The gallery is so fortunate to possess an internationally-recognized collection of photography that has been impacted by the incredible generosity of discerning collectors such as Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft,” Daina Augaitis, the museum’s interim director, said at the time.
Gruft and Beck also supported other photo-art events and centres around town—including the Capture Photography Festival and its speaker series. In addition, Gruft and his wife had an impact at the Polygon Gallery; formerly known as the Presentation House Gallery, in the summer of 2015 it hosted a major exhibition called Eye to Eye from their prints, videos, and books. The new Polygon Gallery’s now iconic waterfront structure is an award-winning design by Patkau Architects, a firm about which Gruft published an important essay as part of an exhibition at UBC’s Fine Arts Gallery in late 1990. (Gruft’s other publications include Substance Over Spectacle, a 2005 book based on an exhibition focused on contemporary Canadian architecture.)
It is the Polygon Gallery where donations can now be made in his name and continue his legacy at the Andrew Gruft Fund for Photography Exhibitions here.
Gruft, who passed away September 29, is survived by his wife Beck, his sons Mark and Michael, and four grandchildren. The family has said it will host a memorial in his honour "when it is safe to do so". In his obituary, they've written, "This loyal remarkable man felt the joys of family, friendship, community, and had the gift of stepping up to speak of what he valued. Andrew loved his life and considered himself fortunate."
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