Terrance Lindall
Terrance Lindall was born in 1944 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota, and graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College in New York City in 1970, with a double major in Philosophy and English, and a double minor in Psychology and Physical Anthropology. He was in the PhD program in philosophy at New York University from 1970-73[1].
Terrance Lindall's surrealist art has been on the covers of numerous books and magazines and has been exhibited at many galleries and museums including the Brooklyn Museum, Hudson River Museum, The Museum of the Surreal and Fantastic, and the Society of Illustrators Museum [2].
The magazines CREEPY, EERIE, VAMPIRELLA [3], HEAVY METAL AND MARVEL'S EPIC, and Rod Serling's TWILIGHT ZONE [4], for which he produced art, are now highly sought after collectibles. His book Paradise Lost Illustrated [5], poetry by John Milton, has been compared to Blake's illustrations at New York University.
Although some critics and scholars consider Lindall to be a “surrealist artist,” it must be noted that a number of self-labeled, "surrealists" and self-labeled "surrealist" groups worldwide contend with this notion. Lindall, moreover, although once stating that he was not a surrealist, merely a promoter of art shows, later claimed in an article that he was “considering” himself one. Lindall said recently, “It satisfies me just to be simply an 'artist' with regard to my painting. History will determine where I stand in both art and in my scholarly writings on epistemological issues and matters of surrealism. Perhaps I should invite these groups who so bitterly disagree with me to New York to debate the definition with other scholars. After all, I believe in dialectic. I believe that the gold of truth is resolved in the fires of contending ideas."
Professor Karen Karbiener, Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, gave a lecture at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center in 2004 on " ...Milton's Satan and his impact on countercultural artistic movements from William Blake to the Beat poets — in essence, the artists "between" Milton and Lindall *[6], the radical artistic legacy." She is the general editor of a two volume survey of rebellious and reactionary American art forms, 1607-2004, the “Encyclopedia of American Counterculture.”
Apart from being an artist, Terrance Lindall has a background in philosophy and has been active in the Williamsburg Brooklyn art community [7] [8][9] over the past few years. He writes for New York Arts Magazine, Block Magazine, and 11211 Magazine, a Breuk Iversen production, and other publications. His recent essay "The Epistemological Movement in Late 20th Century Art"*[10] assesses what he sees as the new artistic trends in the contemporary art world and its context in new thinking about fractal geometry, quantum mechanics, historical will, and epistemological and analytic traditions. He recently curated, Charles Gatewood's THE BODY AND BEYOND *[11] (1997) and APOCALYPSE 1999 [12]. APOCALYPSE 1999 was the most lavish art production seen in Williamsburg to date with over 125 artists from around the world and incorporating many provocative musical and theatrical productions. Since then Lindall has produced the show "Brave Destiny"*[13], including nearly 500 artists. To evaluate the importance of the show he wrote his NEW INTERNATIONAL SURREALIST MANIFESTO (NISM), [14] which subsequently claimed to redefine “surrealism” for a new generation. (However, various aspects of the "Brave Destiny" show as well as the "New International Surrealist Manifesto" were bitterly criticized by a number of "surrealists" who signed a document called "Craven Destiny" and threatened to burn down the show and kill the participants.) In order to avoid conflict with the seriously dedicated “Cravinites,” Lindall, accepted their concerns and renamed the style of art displayed as “Pansurrealism” to describe an all inclusive artistic style derived from ideas in Breton's "manifesto." The opening reception was a "Grand Surrealist Costume Ball *[[15]]" to which people flew in from countries around the world for the one-night event, including Zimbabwe, Australia, England, Canada, Mexico and all across the United States. The arriving guests stopped traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge, the second time Lindall’s shows have done this.
Terrance Lindall is a builder of institutions such as the Greenwood Museum in upper New York State, and has worked with Yuko Nii[16] in developing the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center[17], which has achieved international recognition in the emerging art world. A full-page article appeared in the New York Times about their creation of this institution.
In other aspects of his life, Lindall was in recent years the Financial Manager of Roundabout Theater[18], the world's largest not for profit theater in New York City, and Assistant Treasurer and Business Manager of the American Numismatic Society[19], one of Americas oldest museums with the largest and finest collections of coins and medals going back to the ancient Greeks and Romans. He is now the Executive Vice President of the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center. He is an expert on not for profit law and finance.
Lindall has been in Kate Spade [20] fashion ads appearing in the New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair and several other top magazines. In 2004 the Kate Spade ad campaign was featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City *[21] in a groundbreaking show “Fashioning Fiction *[22].” A short film on this campaign, “Visiting Tennesee” was produced by Andy Spade.