Drawn Into Another World

Jane Eckert’s new gallery in Millerton, NY, is much like its owner: sophisticated, warm, eclectic. When Will Little (who is chairman of The Lakeville Journal Company in full disclosure) and Andrew Gates invited her to relocate from Kent and take over half the building at 34 Main St., just vacated by The Gilded Moon, they told her she would have a congenial neighbor — their own Little Gates Wine Merchants — in the other half. “I jumped at the chance to join in Millerton’s vibrancy and be closer to many clients and my own house in Millbrook,” she told me. Eckert and the owners agreed to divide the street-level space in half, front to back, which gives Eckert a long, spacious gallery, itself divided by a cross wall with a generous, open square arch in the middle. Brilliantly, she has kept the front part light and white, just as you would expect, with modern pieces from her inventory – Rauschenberg, Johns, Rivers, Warhol, even contemporary sculptor Michael Kalish — hanging and standing. Her caramel leather Mies Barcelona daybed gives it the expected “I am an art gallery” feel. But looking down the length of the gallery, your eye is drawn into another world: a softly lighted, near Impressionistic portrait of a woman hangs on the back wall of the second space, which is darker and includes a comfortable sofa, wine cooler, espresso machine; and where 19th-century paintings hanging next to early 20th-century landscapes and a very good Susan Rand painting — heavily influenced by Fairfield Porter — seem at home. This inner sanctum begs you to linger, sit, visit. You see people come and go in the outer gallery where, blessedly, Eckert doesn’t hover. She lets the art speak for itself but is at hand to answer questions and explain. Friends and artists wander to the back room to congratulate her, talk about the making and selling of art. This is where you hear about other galleries and private collections, about the huge Charles Inness catalogue raisonne funded by Frank Martucci of Ancramdale, NY; where Eric Forstmann, Eckert’s star local artist, stops in to photograph her. And Forstmann certainly is Eckert’s current star. She helped arrange a soon-to-open show of his newest work — the “Amenia” series of architectural painting — at Kansas City’s Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. The series, a departure from the expected Forstmann landscapes and still lifes, is dramatic, intense, dark and personal, laden with structures but devoid of people. These pictures are in the American tradition but entirely contemporary with their careful layering and nearly hidden depths. She is showing an especially dark, atmospheric painting from the series contrasted with a serene, two-panel horizontal landscape, “View From Brook Road” from 2010. Along with one of Larry Rivers’ famous “Culture Boxes,” Eckert has brought out Rauschenberg’s “Opal Gospel,” 10 lucite panels with painted images and words based on Native American myths and sayings (the artist was part Native American) and an odd, early Warhol painting of Merce Cunningham done on a flowered wallpaper background. Eckert Fine Art is at 34 Main St. in Millerton, NY. Hours are Monday, Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. For information, call 518-592-1330 or go to www.eckertfineart.com. The gallery will host a joint opening reception with Little Gates Wine Merchants on Saturday, June 4.