Eckert Fine Art Gallery presents Eric Forstmann 21

Celebrating the 21st year of representing realist painter, Eric Forstmann, first in Naples, Florida and now in North Adams, Massachusetts on the campus of MASS MoCA, Eckert Fine Art is pleased to open its show season with ERIC FORSTMANN – 21 on Saturday, May 29.

The exhibition will solely focus on new work by the artist, many of which were painted in Torrington, Connecticut only 70 miles from where they will now be exhibited. This will be the twenty-first presentation of Eric’s work by Jane Eckert, founder of Eckert Fine Art, who adds “every show we’ve had on Eric surveys the further development of his ideas and common observation. The thread through it all is his attention to detail, light and eyeball realism.” The exhibition will interweave Eric Forstmann’s iconic still life paintings, which often feature crumpled Oxford shirts, assorted glass vases and jars, and the universal “Thank You” shopping bag, amongst realist depictions of the Berkshire landscape painted en plein air as seen in Berkshower.

“When standing on a hill painting a landscape I discover binocular vision and my soul works far better than a lens.” – Eric Forstmann, 2021

Eric has strong roots in Massachusetts, he studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, under the tutelage of painters Barnett Rubenstein and Henry Schwartz and grew up in nearby Northwest Connecticut and has many fond memories of exploring the Berkshires.

In addition to his many solo exhibitions, he has had five solo shows at the following institutions: The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri; The Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science in Evansville, Indiana; and the Mattatuck Museum of Waterbury, Connecticut. Eric was featured at the Norman Rockwell Museum in the exhibition Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World and in Naples Collects at the Naples Museum of Art, Naples, Florida in 2016. In the Spring of 2018, Forstmann had a solo exhibition at the Brenau Galleries at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia.

His work has been featured in ARTnews, Architectural Digest, American Art Collector, and many other publications. Litchfield Magazine named him one of the “25 Most Influential People” for 2017 in Litchfield County, Connecticut. In the Fall of 2020, Eric was the Artist-in-Residence at Silo Ridge, a Discovery Land Company Community, in Amenia, NY. Eric serves as the President of the Board of Directors for the Five Points Center for the Visual Arts in Torrington, Connecticut. Eric Forstmann’s work is proudly held in many public and private collections. The artist lives in Sharon, Connecticut and works in Torrington, Connecticut.

“I’m an eyeball realist. I look at things as they are and try to do as much justice to the subject as I possibly can by choosing ordinary objects. I force the viewer to look at them through my eyes.”- Eric Forstmann