Albert Gordon spent the last night of the 20th century in the deepest jungle of northern Borneo, celebrating at a remote outpost with descendents of the ‘white rajah’ who once ruled there.

For Gordon, proprietor with Judith Schuchalter of Origins Gallery in Stockbridge, MA, in the Berkshires, the exotic celebration was a fitting way to usher in the new millennium.

In the last four decades, Gordon has roamed Africa and Asia, from Cameroon to Vietnam, from Mali to the Minorities Provinces of China, traveling by elephant, by longboat, by propellor plane, and often by foot. His most recent trip took him to the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe, Borneo, and Thailand.

Everywhere he goes, Gordon collects beautiful and fascinating works of art, both ancient and contemporary - ceremonial masks from the Ivory Coast, a young woman’s elaborately beaded wedding outfit from Borneo, sterling silver jewelry from Thailand, striking modern sculpture from Zimbabwe. In a longhouse in Sarawak in northern Borneo, he traded his suitcase for three elaborately carved earrings made from the beak of the hornbill bird.

The objects Gordon discovers in far-away places come home to Origins Gallery, 36 Main Street in the ‘Mews’ of Stockbridge. He and Schuchalter, who worked with Gordon when he ran his very successful Tribal Arts Gallery in Manhattan, opened Origins in 1997. While he travels, she holds down the fort, corresponding with museums and collectors, unearthing forgotten treasures in Gordon’s storehouses, and keeping the gallery open year-round.

With the arrival of Spring, Origins is open daily, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and sometimes later. Visitors are invited to caress the silky-smooth curves of a stone sculpture, try on a giant feathered hat from Cameroon, take a seat on a colorful beaded throne, and feel the unexpected lightness of a lacquered bamboo bowl from Vietnam.

‘Here in the heart of Norman Rockwell country, people still recognize and feel the strength of artists who are in direct connection to their traditions,’ Gordon said. ‘People respond to that.’

Rockwell himself would doubtless have been intrigued by the exotic objects that populate his former studio, a small apartment above 40 Main Street that has become origins adjunct gallery. Schuchalter rented the space, just around the corner from Origins, with the intention of staying there when she couldn’t get home to Columbia County, NY.

Instead the apartment houses traditional wooden sculpture and masks from West Africa, gorgeous textiles from China, Burmese puppets, Chinese dolls, a 300-year-old ceramic pot from Mali made to hold palm wine, a pair of gold-plated wooden lions that once guarded a home in Thailand, a giant buffalo mask used in the planting ceremonies of the Baule tribe of the Ivory Coast.

The Ivory Coast, which Gordon has visited many times in the last 30 years, was his first stop when he set off last fall. He saw old friends and picked up a collection of wooden masks they had been assembling for him over two years. Most came from a village that had been divesting itself of traditional icons and practices as it became increasingly Christian. ‘Over the years, I’ve been able to acquire things that way,’ Gordon said.

Then it was on to Zimbabwe, where Gordon was entranced by the exceptional stone sculpture made by the untutored artists of the Shona tribe.

"What’s happening there is new and unprecendented in the art history of the world," Gordon said. "In the last 30 years, a stone art tradition has developed from serpentine quarried in Zimbabwe. i’ve never seen this anywhere in the world - an explosion of creativity in one medium and so many different forms. In some villages you can see a dozen artists working."

With their smooth planes, clean lines, and geometric rhythms, the sculptures combine lyricism and gravity. Their subject matter - the connections between family members, within communities and societies, and between nature and man - is drawn from the artists’ rich culture and mythology, woven with philosophical and contemporary themes.

‘Generations,’ by Richard Mteki, depicts three faces united in one form. Zachariah Njobo’s "Devoted Mother" is dominated by the huge stylized hands that cradle the orb of an infant’s face. The Cubist feel of ‘Contemplation,’ by Colin Mutasa, echoes the work of Picasso.

Gordon was so taken by the sculpture that he ended up shipping a 20,000-pound container back to the US. Preparing the package was not an easy task.

"The logistics are so difficult - ferreting out the work, selecting it, transporting it from the village to the town to the capital, finding packing materials, getting it packed properly" he said. Extensive flooding in Mozambique and Zimbabwe delayed the shipment for three months.

By then, however, Gordon had departed for Sarawak, in the northenmost reaches of the island of Borneo, where he traveled by longboat through the jungle, accompanied by two English geologists and a native guide.

"It was one of the most memorable trips that i’ve ever taken." he said. "The jungle was so dense and impenetrable. It was awesome. When the water got too low, we walked for hours in the riverbed."

Their destination was the traditional longhouse settlement of the headhunting Iban tribe. "Theoretically they have stopped their headhunting," Gordon said, "But in one longhouse where I spent several days, the chief was very proud to show me the skulls his grandfather has acquired. They hang there to show the prowess of the family."

Gordon was able to purchase from the chief several striking painted masks, used for important community celebrations. He also came away with carved hornbill ivory earrings, traditionally worn by men along with heavy metal rings. Also in Borneo, Gordon found wooden figural "hunting wands," which hunters place beside their animal traps to identify their game, an ancient beaded belt, and a young woman’s elaborately beaded wedding outfit, purchased in a bazaar in the capital, Kuching. He also tried a blowgun and acquired an Iban tattoo.

After his Y2K celebration in a posh jungle enclave, Gordon flew out in a tiny propellor plane that was forced to abort its landing three times. "We were all petrified," he recalled. Safe in Thailand, he shopped for sterling silver jewelry and got his second tattoo, from a Lisu tribesman.

Somehow, Gordon avoided blood poisoning, infection, leeches, flooding, and anti-American violence - though he admits crime is a greater concern for him than it was when he began traveling in Africa in the early 1960Ős. In Zimbabwe, he was devastated when his car was broken into and two masks he had just purchased were taken.

"It’s getting more and more dicey in these esoteric places," he said. "There’s much more of a feeling of tension and violence. But the artists have such a beguiling nature about them. They are extraordinarily gifted, creative, and friendly, despite the troubles in their countries."

Now 65, Gordon still has a long wish list of travel destinations. Next on his agenda are Peru and Syria, and this month he takes what is for him a relaxing vacation - a bicycling trip in Provence.

For gallery hours or more information, call (413) 298-0002.