Check out our galleries section for a complete list of Berkshire galleries.
Great Barrington Galleries Offer Art, Excitement and Community—Year Round!
By Veronica Bosley
March 2008
Streets filled with people of all ages shopping, eating and site-seeing—sounds like summer in the Berkshires, right? Wrong! This is the scene that greeted me as I drove into downtown Great Barrington during the first weekend of March. Restaurants, shops and streets were full of people walking about as if there wasn’t a foot of snow dropped on the ground the night before.
I don’t get to Great Barrington as often as I should and it was actually my first time at the two galleries I visited; Berkshire Art Gallery and the Vault Gallery. Great Barrington has a lot to offer and these two galleries have something for all types of art lovers and art collectors.
My first stop was Berkshire Art Gallery. Established in 1995, the Berkshire Art Gallery, located at 80 Railroad Street, features a wide range of American and European paintings and works on paper from the 19th and 20th centuries, with a few contemporary works by Berkshire-based artists also available.
The Gallery specializes in works by artists whose accomplishments may not be fully reflected in today's world. For some reason or other, many of these artists have fallen out of favor (after all, even Raphael was overshadowed by other great artists of his time, only fully coming back into public favor in the 18th and 19th centuries). Many artists at the gallery were students in Europe or at schools associated with prestigious teachers or museums such as Robert Henri, William Merritt Chase, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts or the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston or the National Academy. Many of the artists in the collection at Berkshire Art Gallery have their work in museums and important collections.
John Wood, owner of Berkshire Art Gallery, established the gallery with a partner more than 12 years ago, with the idea of exhibiting solely the work of contemporary artists.
“My partner decided to leave and do other things and I decided to change the collection,” Wood explained. “Now we have mostly 19th and 20th century American artists with a few contemporary artists mixed in. Our collection is an eclectic mix of original works.”
An attorney, Wood first began collecting art in law school. “I do now what I did then. I buy things that I like. That’s my advice to new and experienced collectors alike. Do a lot of research, study pieces extensively before buying, but also buy things that speak to you—that’s the ultimate criterion. You should have an emotive reaction to the work.”
Berkshire Art Gallery is cozy and fascinating. The collection is remarkably large and diverse with extensive literature on each artist. I could have curled up in one of the large armchairs and spent the afternoon there, but I needed to move along to my next destination.
The Vault Gallery is located in the historic Mahaiwe building—formerly a bank—at the corner of Main & Castle Street in Great Barrington. It is aptly named for the vault taking up nearly half of its interior. Once used for safe deposit boxes, the vault is now a quirky architectural feature, one that would have scared off most tenants looking to rent the space.
Marilyn Kalish, artist and founder of the Vault Gallery, was up for the challenge. Kalish was looking for a studio space when she first encountered the Vault Gallery to-be. She knew it wouldn’t work for her studio (she currently works in an old church up the street from the gallery—a much larger space) but she thought it had some potential as a place where she could show some of her work and the work of friends.
That was five years ago, and since then the gallery had expanded from an informal show space to a lovely professional gallery boasting five employees and representing eight artists. The gallery features contemporary art including paintings, photography, and sculpture, in addition to independent film. And yes, the interior of the vault itself is used for exhibition space.
When I entered the gallery I found myself among a small crowd of people mingling, drinking champagne and snacking on silver coated Jordan almonds. When I met up with Marilyn Kalish she explained that “They do these champagne receptions every weekend. I think last week they served cake—just whatever they have around and something that will be fun for the public”.
Kalish’s artwork is featured prominently at the gallery.
“After 20 years of working full-time as an artist I was finally able to take control of my own career by starting this gallery,” she said. “There is no one telling me what to create and how to create it. We like all of our artists to have freedom. Who am I to tell other artists what they need to be doing? Who is anyone, for that matter?”
Kalish’s large scale, mixed media works are suspended paintings on glass-beaded panels. The work is fluid and the play of light on her surfaces creates a surprising amount of movement within her pieces. Her own invention, a simple suspended mount, results in further interactions of light.
In The Dance Series, her current body of work, Kalish “combines her knowledge of the principles of physics with her fascination of movement. Her deliberate yet nuanced approach to materials result in unusual orientations between dancers, light, color, space and movement. She explores both the objectivity and beauty of the physical world of science and the darker, more elemental realms of feeling and passion.”
Kalish’s work is juxtaposed with the work of Leonard Baskin and Clemens Kalischer. All three artists explore the human form in various media, giving the viewer the chance to think about the way see and interpret various representations based on a common subject—people.
Leonard Baskin (1922 – 2000) is widely considered one of the preeminent figures of 20th century American Art. Baskin was creatively active for over five decades as a sculptor, printmaker, painter, illustrator, critic, book publisher, and educator.
In another clever use of what could be awkward architectural features, the gallery places Baskin’s sculpture on either side of the mantel of the fireplace that sits in the half of the gallery unencumbered by the vault. His sculptures look so natural, as if the gallery had inherited them with the space.
Baskin's work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The Nation Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The Seattle Art Museum, the Vatican Museum, the Smithsonian Institution and the Tate Gallery in London.
The wall opposite Baskin’s sculpture is dedicated to the work of Clemens Kalischer and features his “Early New York” work. Born in Lindau, Germany in 1921, Kalischer fled Berlin and Nazi Germany with his family in 1933, taking up residence in Paris. From 1939-1942, he was held in various French concentration camps, as were many Germans, to await his fate.
Kalischer managed to escape in 1942 and made his way to Portugal where, with the help of the Emergency Rescue Committee, he gained passage on a ship bound for the United States. His photographs are mostly portraits of people like himself—people new to the United States, living in New York in the first half of the 20th century.
Another type of portrait featured in the gallery is Marilyn Kalish’s drawing of renowned ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Nureyev once said, “There is an invisible thread that connects people and unites them either for a few hours or for life.”
The discussion between Kalish and me explored a similar sentiment.
“One of the reasons I love the gallery is because it’s a place where people meet one another and make connections,” she said. “This afternoon there were two couples who met at the gallery and made plans to have dinner afterward. We’re all about connecting the community.”
According to Associate Director Stephanie Kouloganis, the gallery “is constantly evolving when new work is introduced”. The gallery is expanding into other venues around Great Barrington and elsewhere. Recently they were asked to install work at Christie’s in New York.
The key to the gallery’s success?
“We stay open seven days a week, year-round,” Kalish said. “In the summers we’re even open until 11 p.m. and people can look at our work after getting out of a movie or a show at the theatre.
“We’re so privileged to be part of this town right now. It’s a great place to be. There are no empty storefronts and the town is just exploding with activity. I mean, look at all of these people here on a Saturday afternoon—in March!”
The Vault Gallery is open daily from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., occasionally open until 11 p.m. during the summer. For more information, including directions, visit: www.vaultgallery.net.
About Veronica Bosley
Veronica Bosley holds a bachelor of arts degree in Art History from Mount Holyoke College and is currently program coordinator for the Massachusetts College of Liberal Art's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center. A native of the Berkshires who has worked in the area art scene for several years, Veronica is excited by the growth of the creative economy and cultural community in the region. She lives in the first apartment house built in the city of North Adams, which she shares with her fiancé, Tyler, and two cats, Veronicat and Station. Veronica can be contacted at: bvbgalleries@gmail.com.