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The Terrain Gallery is an art gallery in New York City, founded by painter Dorothy Koppelman, for the purpose of expressing “through the graphic arts mainly, and through all the others,”[1] the viewpoint of Aesthetic Realism,<link> the philosophy founded by American poet and educator Eli Siegel, <link> whose statement, “In reality opposites are one; art shows this” became the gallery’s motto. [2]

The announcement of the Terrain’s opening exhibition, on February 26, 1955, contained 15 questions for artists to discuss, written by Siegel: Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites? (subsequently reprinted in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism)[3] and from the beginning, the gallery was simultaneously an exhibition space for contemporary art and a cultural center where artists, scholars, and the public in general discussed the innovative approach to art presented by Aesthetic Realism.[4]

Artists who have exhibited at the Terrain include Ad Reinhardt, Larry Rivers, Andre Kertesz, Chaim Koppelman, Robert Blackburn, Arnold Schmidt, Rolph Scarlett, Will Barnet, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Lois Dodd, Steve Poleskie, and Clare Romano. Although exhibiting artists were not required to endorse Aesthetic Realism,[5] many wrote comments on the Siegel Theory of Opposites in relation to their work, which were displayed with their art. [6]

Parker Tyler Art News wrote of the “explicitly inquiring and venturesome spirit” at the Terrain.[7] Bennett Schiff wrote: “There probably hasn’t been a gallery before like the Terrain, which devotes itself to the integration of art with all of living, according to…the theory of ‘Aesthetic Realism’ as developed and taught by Eli Siegel.” [8]

Aesthetic Realism & the Siegel Theory of Opposites

Rooted in a philosophy that provides a criterion for all styles of art, the Terrain Gallery was innovative in holding large group exhibitions that successfully combined diverse stylistic tendencies.[9] It held “one of the first exhibitions honoring photography as a fine art”[10] and silkscreens as major work.[11]

Art critics generally praised exhibitions at the Terrain, but many did not mention the name of the philosophy behind these exhibitions, or wrote of it disparagingly. [12] Vernon Young, in Art News (June, 1957) opined that “a gallery dedicated to a unifying esthetic principle should have its intentions honored even if it may seem relevant for anyone to call the principle into question.” Yet when Art News published an interview with Tiffany award-winner Chaim Koppelman (1920-2009), <link>founder of the printmaking division of the School of Visual Arts, and an artist who considered Aesthetic Realism central to his work, the magazine omitted all mention of the philosophy.[13] In 1962, Dorothy and Chaim Koppelman placed an ad in the Village Voice, “A Statement to the Art World,” in which they asked critics and artists to be fair to Aesthetic Realism and Eli Siegel.[14]

Also in 1962, the Koppelmans joined hundreds of artists who signed their names to an ad in the New York Times protesting the war in Vietnam.[15] To benefit napalm-burned children in Vietnam, the Terrain held an exhibition in 1967 titled, All Art Is For Life and Against the War in Vietnam. [16]

All the Arts

In addition to talks on art and poetry[17] the Terrain Gallery published Personal & Impersonal: Six Aesthetic Realists; poems by Sheldon Kranz, Louis Dienes, Nancy Starrels, Nat Hertz, Martha Baird and Rebecca Fein[18] and held an exhibition of work by 45 artists, including Leonard Baskin, Robert Andrew Parker, and Nathan Cabot Hale, inspired by the poems.[19]

First located at 20 West 16th Street, the Terrain Gallery moved in 1964 to 39Grove Street, where it continued to hold innovative exhibitions, as well as dramatic presentations of Aesthetic Realism.[20] In 1973, the Terrain Gallery became part of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, [link] located at 141 Greene Street.

In 1984, a new series of weekly talks began: Aesthetic Realism Shows How Art Answers the Questions of Your Life. An overview of this series of more than 175 talks on art of diverse genres and periods was presented by co-directors Dorothy Koppelman and Carrie Wilson at the 31st World Congress of the International Society for Education through Art (Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003). [21]

In 2005, the Terrain Gallery held a 50th Anniversary celebration with a exhibition that brought together works by 52 artists, several of whom contributed statements about how the Aesthetic Realism of Eli Siegel has influenced their work. [22]

[23]

Draft References

  1. ^ Carrie Wilson, A Brief History of the Terrain Gallery, presented at the Opening of the 50th Anniversary Show – May 7, 2005: Dorothy Koppelman, who was among the earliest artists, poets, and others studying Aesthetic Realism with Mr. Siegel, presented this idea to her colleagues, including Chaim Koppelman, and poets and photographers Sheldon Kranz, Nancy Starrels, and Louis Dienes; she proposed: … “It’s a place where, through the graphic arts mainly, and through all the others, the Aesthetic Realism point of view will be shown. I hope to show as clearly, as pointedly, as delightfully as possible that through paintings, sculpture, poetry, literature, the world makes great sense.” http:www.terraingallery.org/Some-History.html
  2. ^ Hilary Dunsterville, Art News, 31 December, 1959: “Odd and Even” is the title of a group show at the Terrain, 20 W. 16th Street, a gallery which is pledged to the philosophy of Eli Siegel: “In reality opposites are one; art shows this.”
  3. ^ Eli Siegel “Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?” The Journal of A esthetics & Art Criticism, (December, 1955) vol. XIV, No.2
  4. ^ ^ S.F. in Arts Digest, 15 April 1955: “A new gallery…the Terrain…not only shows works which it considers pertinent to this position [the Theory of Opposites by Eli Siegel] but also holds public discussions at regular intervals as an education feature. The current group of artists here are for the most part, well known exhibitors in other galleries.”
  5. ^ Bennett Schiff in the New York Post, Sunday, 16 June, 1957: “It is important to note that the gallery does not require the artists who show their work there to be exponents of the theory.”
  6. ^ 'Smithsonian Archives of American Art, [1]
  7. ^ Parker Tyler in Art News, May, 1955: “Intersection '55 (Terrain: to May 7) devised according to an explicitly inquiring and venturesome spirit, is drawn from the works of contemporary artists of broadly different mediums and approaches. The title of Dorothy Koppelman's Light Is a Thing suggests the philosophic view point this new gallery seeks to promote.”
  8. ^ Bennett Schiff in the New York Post, Sunday, 16 June, 1957: “An interesting aspect of the cultural life of this city within the past three years has been the development of the Terrain Gallery. There probably hasn’t been a gallery before this like the Terrain, which devotes itself to the integration of art with all of living, according to an esthetic principle which is part of an entire, encompassing philosophic theory. The gallery was organized and launched about three years ago by a group of young, cultivated persons including writers, artists and teachers, all of whom held a fundamental belief in common. This was the validity of the theory of ‘Aesthetic Realism’ as developed and taught by Eli Siegel, a poet and philosopher whose work has received growing recognition….Aesthetic Realism is: ‘The art of liking oneself through seeing the world, art, and oneself as the aesthetic oneness of opposites.’”
  9. ^ Robert Stone, the Village Voice, 28 March 1956: It is unusual today, when art and idea are usually separated, to find a group show which, more than a casual grab bag of assorted styles, is a conscious selection and arrangement of works of art for the purpose of illustrating a philosophic concept. The concept now at the Terrain Gallery is the contrast between the qualities of abstraction and concreteness….It is an unusual collection of a variety of styles and there is probably something here for any extreme of taste—from the extremely Renaissance-like tempera realism of George Tooker to the pigment-rich violent Expressionist statement of Rolph Scarlett.”
  10. ^ Michael Russo, “Some Galleries That Do Welcome New Talent, New York Times, 11 May 1980: “After much debate, there is now little doubt that photography has emerged as a valid fine art form….The Terrain gallery held one of the first exhibitions honoring photography as fine art.”
  11. ^ Grace Gleuck, New York Times [date]: “The Terrain even had a whole show of them.”
  12. ^ Hilary Dunsterville, Art News, December 31, 1959: “Odd and Even” is the title of a group show at the Terrain, 20 E. 16th St., a gallery which is pledged to the philosophy of Eli Siegel: “In reality opposites are one; art shows this.” Technique in the visual arts,” according to this philosophy, named Aesthetic Realism, “is a constant, concrete—though often unseen—use by the individual of philosophic problems.” So the announcement tells the viewer. I like philosophy and I like art. But it is a pity when philosophy gets pasted over art, a device about as effective as dark glasses worn indoors. Technique, good or bad, has nothing to do with philosophy—rather with the materials, tools and execution of work. On to the important matter—the exhibition. Twenty-four artists, sculptors, and printmakers here show works—figurative, and abstract, in ink, watercolor, collage, metal and montage—which all fortunately appear to have been painted without the aid of dark glasses.”
  13. ^ ArtNews, September, 1960)
  14. ^ Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman, “A Statement to the Art World,” Village Voice, 1 March 1962: “We ask you, personally, to be fair to Aesthetic Realism and Eli Siegel. …Aesthetic Realism is not a cult. We find bizarre the tendency in artists and critics to call Aesthetic Realism a cult while using it—under cover of ‘common knowledge’—to crystallize their own thoughts and writing on art. …We cannot consider any person a friend who does not want to be fair to Aesthetic Realism and Eli Siegel.”
  15. ^ New York Times, Tuesday, June 26, 1962
  16. ^ Ralph E. Shikes, The Indignant Eye (Beacon Press, 1969) pages 369, and 37l: “If the civil rights issue shook many American artists out of their self-preoccupation, the Vietnam war brought them into active agitation. ‘For the first time in my life as an artist I felt I had to engage a social theme,’ Chaim Koppelman has declared. His statement reflected the new involvement of many of his fellow artists.…The grieving mother with a dead child in her arms has become a cliché in antiwar protest. Chaim Koppelman, however has made expert use of aquatint to add a new dimension to this now obvious concept. The mother, as well as child has the aura of approaching death. Mother and background both reflect the disorder, the filth, and the shadowy nature of war and death. Koppelman’s protest springs from the art and is not superimposed on it.”
  17. ^ ”Society Holds Poetry Inquiry,” Village Voice 1 December 1955
  18. ^ New York Times 1 June, 1959: “Personal and Impersonal, Six Esthetic (sic) Realists: Poems by Sheldon Kranz, Louis Dienes, Nancy Starrels, Nat Hertz, Martha Baird, Rebecca Fein, with critical preface by Eli Siegel (Terrain Gallery)
  19. ^ ”45 Artists and a Book of Poems,” The Villager 14 May 1959: “The Terrain Gallery, 20 W. 16th St., will hold a reception on Saturday evening at 9 to celebrate two occasions. The first is the publishing of the book of poems, Personal and Impersonal: Six Aesthetic Realists, by Sheldon Kranz, Louis Dienes, Nancy Starrels, Nat Hertz, Rebecca Fein and Martha Baird. The second is the opening of an exhibition of work by 45 artists interpreting the poems. In a critical preface, poet Eli Siegel, founder of the philosophy of Aesthetic Realism, says “what poetry is deeply and immediately concerns what our lives are.”
  20. ^ Faith Stern, “Scene of her mind change,” The Villager, 13 February 2002: “It was in the Terrain Gallery that there were dramatic presentations of Aesthetic Realism, the education founded in 1941 by the American poet and critic Eli Siegel….Also at the Terrain Gallery were exhibitions by many noted contemporary artists, all based on this Aesthetic Realism principle: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves…. So I hail 39 Grove St. for introducing me to Aesthetic Realism. The Terrain Gallery is now located at the not-for-profit Aesthetic Realism Foundation, 141 Greene St. in Soho.”
  21. ^ International Conversations through Art (Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003): “Since 1984, the Terrain Gallery…has presented, free to the public, a weekly series of ten-minute talks: Aesthetic Realism Shows How Art Answers the Questions of Your Life. ...As coordinators of the Terrain Gallery and of this series of over 175 talks, we have selected passages from eight of them, dealing with diverse works—from 16th century Persia to 19th century France, from medieval Russia to 20th century America….Aesthetic Realism teaches that the deepest desire of every person is to like the world honestly, and that, we have learned, is the purpose of art, and all education.”
  22. ^ J. Sanders Eaton, Gallery & Studio, September/October 2005: Founded on a philosophy put forth by the poet and critic Eli Siegel (“All beauty is the making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves”), Terrain Gallery/Aesthetic Realism Foundation, 141 Greene Street, has always come on like gangbusters. However, that the foundation is as catholic in its choices as it is strident in its rhetoric comes across clearly in Terrain Gallery 50th Anniversary Exhibition, a sprawline survey on view through September. Since it opened in 1955, Terrain Gallery has mounted over 150 shows pairing diverse stylistic tendencies and placing emerging artists alongside well-known figures such as Robert Motherwelll, Alex Katz, and Red Grooms, among others….Indeed, this exhibition is filled with unexpected treasures….Several of the artists in the exhibition contribute statements to the catalog concerning how the ideas of Eli Siegel have influenced their work.”
  23. ^ Takata H, Kominami T. 2004 Blah BLah BLah. [2]



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