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Terrain Gallery records, circa 1950s-2005, bulk 1955-1985

Creator:
Terrain Gallery  Search this
Subject:
Bourdon, David  Search this
Koppelman, Dorothy  Search this
Wilson, Carrie  Search this
Koppelman, Chaim  Search this
Reinhardt, Ad  Search this
Nordness, Lee  Search this
Abeles, Sigmund  Search this
Ashton, Dore  Search this
Campbell, Lawrence  Search this
Bragar, Philip F.  Search this
Jacobs, Harold  Search this
Hess, Thomas B.  Search this
Rush, Andrew  Search this
Siegel, Eli  Search this
Stamos, Theodoros  Search this
Ward, Lynd  Search this
Koppelman, Chaim  Search this
Koppelman, Dorothy  Search this
Kramer, Hilton  Search this
Leiber, Gerson August  Search this
Longo, Vincent  Search this
Milton, Peter  Search this
American Federation of Arts  Search this
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Type:
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Photographs
Transcripts
Citation:
Terrain Gallery records, circa 1950s-2005, bulk 1955-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Art -- Philosophy  Search this
Aesthetic Realism  Search this
Theme:
Art Gallery Records  Search this
Art Market  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)13588
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)268633
AAA_collcode_terrgall
Theme:
Art Gallery Records
Art Market
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_268633
Online Media:

Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman papers, circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005

Creator:
Koppelman, Chaim, 1920-  Search this
Subject:
Stamos, Theodoros  Search this
Anuszkiewicz, Richard  Search this
Dienes, Sari  Search this
Herz, Nat  Search this
Kandinsky, Wassily  Search this
Koppelman, Dorothy  Search this
Kranz, Sheldon  Search this
Lichtenstein, Roy  Search this
Ozenfant, Amédée  Search this
Pond, Clayton  Search this
Rebay, Hilla  Search this
Picasso, Pablo  Search this
Siegel, Eli  Search this
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation  Search this
Terrain Gallery  Search this
Audubon Artists (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Associated American Artists  Search this
American Federation of Arts  Search this
DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park  Search this
Pratt Graphics Center  Search this
Print Council of America  Search this
School of Visual Arts (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Type:
Illustrated letters
Sketchbooks
Photographs
Sound recordings
Scrapbooks
Sketches
Citation:
Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman papers, circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Artists' studios  Search this
Gallery owners -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
World War, 1939-1945  Search this
Art -- Study and teaching  Search this
Prints -- Technique  Search this
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Theme:
Lives of artists  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)13589
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)268639
AAA_collcode_koppchai
Theme:
Lives of artists
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_268639
Online Media:

Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman papers

Creator:
Koppelman, Chaim, 1920-2009  Search this
Names:
American Federation of Arts  Search this
Associated American Artists  Search this
Audubon Artists (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park  Search this
Pratt Graphics Center  Search this
Print Council of America  Search this
School of Visual Arts (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation  Search this
Terrain Gallery  Search this
Anuszkiewicz, Richard  Search this
Dienes, Sari  Search this
Herz, Nat, 1920-1964  Search this
Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944  Search this
Koppelman, Dorothy  Search this
Kranz, Sheldon  Search this
Lichtenstein, Roy, 1923-1997  Search this
Ozenfant, Amédée, 1886-1966  Search this
Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973  Search this
Pond, Clayton, 1941-  Search this
Rebay, Hilla, 1890-1967  Search this
Siegel, Eli, 1902-  Search this
Stamos, Theodoros, 1922-1997  Search this
Extent:
4 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Illustrated letters
Sketchbooks
Photographs
Sound recordings
Scrapbooks
Sketches
Date:
circa 1930s-2006
bulk 1942-2005
Summary:
The papers of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman measure 4.0 linear feet and date from circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005. The collection documents the activities of Chaim Koppelman and his wife, Dorothy Koppelman, as artists and educators, and their affiliation with the Terrain Gallery and the Aesthetic Realism Foundation. Materials include biographical material, correspondence, writings and notes, subject files, teaching files, exhibition files, personal business records, scrapbooks, printed material, sketches, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman measure 4.0 linear feet and date from circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005. The collection documents the activities of Chaim Koppelman and his wife, Dorothy Koppelman, as artists and educators, and their affiliation with the Terrain Gallery and the Aesthetic Realism Foundation. Materials include biographical material, correspondence, writings and notes, subject files, teaching files, exhibition files, personal business records, scrapbooks, printed material, sketches, sketchbooks, and photographs.

Scattered biographical material includes resumes, artist's statements, copies of entries in Who's Who directories, and miscellaneous items.

Correspondence includes personal correspondence and general correspondence. Personal correspondence mostly consists of Chaim Koppelman's letters written to Dorothy while he was serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He describes his daily activities, observations on army life, and his travels while stationed in England, France, and Germany. Of interest is Chaim Koppelman's letter to Dorothy describing his meeting Picasso and visiting the artist's studio. Personal correspondence also includes Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman's letters with family and friends. Notable correspondents include Sari Dienes, Nat Herz, Sheldon Kranz, Amédée Ozenfant, Hilla Rebay, and Theodoros Stamos. Hilla Rebay's letters to Chaim Koppelman discuss museum-related activities at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, including the Guggenheim's memorial exhibition for Wassily Kandinsky. There is also a file of letters from Eli Siegel to Chaim Koppelman. General correspondence includes mostly incoming letters to Chaim Koppelman from collectors, colleagues, students, and arts institutions. Frequent correspondents include: Associated American Artists, American Federation of the Arts, Audubon Artists, DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park, Pratt Graphics Center and Print Council of America.

Writings and notes contain annotated typescripts and handwritten drafts by Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman. Chaim Koppelman's writings include essays and talks on art, artists, and printmaking based on Aesthetic Realism; also found are some poems. Dorothy Koppelman's writings consist of artist's statements and essay-length pieces that were prepared for Aesthetic Realism talks on the work and lives of artists, held at the Terrain Gallery of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation and other venues. Also found is a sound recording of Chaim Koppelman's 1968 conversation with Richard Anuszkiewicz, Roy Lichtenstein, and Clayton Pond; the artists discuss the influence of the Siegel Theory of Opposites on their work.

Subject files document the activities, projects, and professional affiliations of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman. Included are materials on exhibitions, applications for fellowships and grants, awards, drafts of writings, donations and acquisitions of artwork by museums. Teaching files provide an overview of the faculty positions held by Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman over the course of their careers. Found are extensive files on Chaim Koppelman's tenure at the School of Visual Arts. Exhibition files chronicle the Koppelmans' solo and group shows at the Terrain and other venues; substantive files contain Chaim Koppelman's correspondence with museums and arts institutions and sales information.

Two scrapbooks contain exhibition-related materials, such as artists' statements, press releases, awards, printed material, and photographs of artwork. Artwork includes sketches and illustrated letters by Chaim Koppelman. There are twenty annotated sketchbooks by Chaim Koppelman and a sketchbook by Dorothy Koppelman. Photographs and snapshots are of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman; many of the snapshots of Chaim Koppelman and others document his army service while stationed in the United States and Europe. Four photograph albums include black and white photographs of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman in their studio; included are snapshots of the Koppelmans with family and friends at exhibition openings, gatherings, and on their travels. There are photographs of Regina Dienes, Gerson Lieber, Bernard Olshan, Joseph Solman, and Theodoros Stamos.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 12 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1940-2001 (Box 1; 0.1 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1942-2003 (Box 1; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings and Notes, 1930s-1989, 2005 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 4: Subject Files, 1942-2004 (Boxes 1-2; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 5: Teaching Files, 1940s-2006 (Box 2; 0.4 linear feet)

Series 6: Exhibition Files, 1940s-2005 (Boxes 2-3; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 7: Personal Business Records, 1944-1969 (Box 3; 3 folders)

Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1942-2003 (Box 3; 2 folders)

Series 9: Printed Material, 1937-1971, 2004 (Box 3; 0.25 linear feet)

Series 10: Artwork, 1933-1949, 1980-2000 (Box 3; 3 folders)

Series 11: Sketchbooks, 1944-2005 (Boxes 3-4; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 12: Photographs, 1930-circa 2004 (Box 4; 0.25 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Chaim Koppelman (1920-2009) lived and worked in New York as a printmaker, educator, and Aesthetic Realism consultant. Painter, gallery director, Aesthetic Realism consultant, and educator Dorothy Koppelman (1920-) resides and works in New York City.

Chaim Koppelman was born in Brooklyn in 1920. Koppelman studied at the American Artists School with Carl Holty and at the Art Students League with Jose De Creeft and Will Barnet. Simultaneously, he began to study in classes taught by Eli Siegel, critic, poet, and founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism. In 1942, Koppelman was drafted in the U.S. Army. Before going overseas in 1943, he married Dorothy Myers. In the army, Koppelman continued his studies in painting and sculpture, where he attended the Art College in Western England, Bristol, and the Beaux Arts School in Reims, France. Chaim Koppelman took part in the Normandy invasion and was awarded the Bronze Star for his service.

After Koppelman returned to New York in 1944, he studied at the Amédée Ozenfant School, where he eventually became Ozenfant's assistant. Around this time, Koppelman turned from painting and sculpture to printmaking. In 1955, Chaim Koppelman, his wife, Dorothy, and other artists and poets studying Aesthetic Realism established the Terrain Gallery. For many years, Koppelman was the head of the gallery's Print Division and then later became an advisory director.

Chaim Koppelman held a number of teaching positions in universities and arts institutions. He lectured at Brooklyn College, the Art Education Department from 1950-1960. In 1959, Koppelman founded the Printmaking Division at the School of Visual Arts, where he served on the school's faculty until 2007. At the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, he taught artists how to relate their artwork and their everyday lives. He wrote: "After having tested his aesthetic concepts in literally thousands of works of different periods, in different styles, in different media, I say that Eli Siegel's Theory of Opposites is the key to what is good or beautiful in art….When Eli Siegel showed that what makes a work of art beautiful—the oneness of opposites—is the same as what every individual wants, it was one of the mightiest and kindest achievements of man's mind."

Among the awards Chaim Koppelman received were: two Tiffany Grants, 1956, 1959; New York Artists Equity Annual Awards Honoring Will Barnet, Robert Blackburn, Chaim Koppelman, 1992; and the Purchase Prize, Art Students League in 2005. Koppelman was a member of the National Academy and a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA). In 2004, SAGA presented him with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his solo and group exhibitions at the Terrain Gallery, Chaim Koppelman's work was featured at the Beatrice Conde Gallery, International Print Center (New York), Library of Congress, and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. His prints are in the collections of the Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art (New York), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Gallery.

In December 2009, Koppelman died at age 89 in New York City.

Born in 1920, Dorothy Koppelman attended Brooklyn College, the Art Students League, and American Artists School where she trained under Joseph Solman. During this time, she began to study poetry, and the relation of art and the self in classes with Eli Siegel, the founder of Aesthetic Realism.

Dorothy Koppelman has had a number of solo and group exhibitions at the Terrain Gallery. She has also shown her paintings at the Atlantic Gallery, Art Gallery of Binghamton, New York, Beatrice Conde Gallery, the Broome Street Gallery, and at MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, the Whitney Biennial 2006 Peace Tower, the National Academy, and the Butler Art Institute.

Dorothy Koppelman has served on the faculty at several arts institutions: the National Academy, Brooklyn College School of Education, and the School of Visual Arts. She has given presentations on Aesthetic Realism at the Fondazione Piero della Francesa in Italy, and with Carrie Wilson at the 31st World Congress of the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA). On August 16, 2002, in a talk given on Eli Siegel Day in Baltimore, she said, "Eli Siegel explained the true meaning of art for our lives. No one—no scholar, no artist, no person—in all the centuries ever saw this before: that we can learn about ourselves from the very technique of art!...He showed that far from being in a separate world, art has the answer to the trouble in this one."

She is a member of several professional organizations including the American Society of Contemporary Artists and New York Artists Equity. She has received an Honorable Mention from the Brooklyn Society of Artists, 1957; a Tiffany Grant for painting, 1965; and awards from the American Society of Contemporary Artists, 1996, 1999. Dorothy Koppelman's work has been included in the collections of Hampton University, Virginia; Rosenzweig Museum, Durham, North Carolina; New-York Historical Society; Yale University; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, as well as other institutions.

Dorothy Koppelman lives in New York City. She is a consultant on the faculty of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, where she also teaches the Critical Inquiry, a workshop for artists. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, and is President of the Eli Siegel/Martha Baird Foundation. She continues her study in classes with Ellen Reiss, Aesthetic Realism Chairman of Education.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds the Terrain Gallery records of which Dorothy Koppelman is the director.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman in 2006.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Topic:
Artists' studios  Search this
Gallery owners -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
World War, 1939-1945  Search this
Art -- Study and teaching  Search this
Prints -- Technique  Search this
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this
Genre/Form:
Illustrated letters
Sketchbooks
Photographs
Sound recordings
Scrapbooks
Sketches
Citation:
Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman papers, circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.koppchai
See more items in:
Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman papers
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw988e54036-6f92-4d0d-89e9-c638ba3bf216
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-koppchai
Online Media:

Dorothy Koppelman at work

Photographer:
Jaffe, Morris H.  Search this
Subject:
Koppelman, Dorothy  Search this
Type:
Photographs
Date:
1957
Citation:
Morris H. Jaffe. Dorothy Koppelman at work, 1957. Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman papers, circa 1930s-2006. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Artists at or with their work  Search this
Artists' studios  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA)16787
See more items in:
Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman papers, circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_item_16787
Online Media:

Terrain Gallery records

Creator:
Terrain Gallery  Search this
Names:
American Federation of Arts  Search this
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Abeles, Sigmund, 1934-  Search this
Ashton, Dore  Search this
Bragar, Philip F., 1925-  Search this
Campbell, Lawrence  Search this
Hess, Thomas B.  Search this
Jacobs, Harold, 1932-  Search this
Koppelman, Chaim, 1920-2009  Search this
Koppelman, Chaim, 1920-2009 -- Photographs  Search this
Koppelman, Dorothy  Search this
Koppelman, Dorothy -- Photographs  Search this
Kramer, Hilton  Search this
Leiber, Gerson August, 1921-  Search this
Longo, Vincent, 1923-  Search this
Milton, Peter, 1930-  Search this
Nordness, Lee  Search this
Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967 -- Photographs  Search this
Rush, Andrew  Search this
Siegel, Eli, 1902-  Search this
Stamos, Theodoros, 1922-1997  Search this
Ward, Lynd, 1905-1985  Search this
Wilson, Carrie  Search this
Interviewer:
Bourdon, David  Search this
Extent:
5.3 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Photographs
Transcripts
Date:
circa 1950s-2005
bulk 1955-1985
Summary:
The records of the Terrain Gallery measure 5.3 linear feet and date from circa 1950s-2005, bulk 1955-1985. The bulk of the records consists of exhibition files that document over one hundred and forty exhibitions as well as the gallery's relationship with artists. The collection includes founding documents, correspondence, artists' files, writings and an interview, financial records, scrapbooks, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The records of the Terrain Gallery measure 5.3 linear feet and date from circa 1950s-2005, bulk 1955-1985. The bulk of the records consists of exhibition files that document over one hundred and forty exhibitions as well as the gallery's relationship with artists. The collection includes founding documents, correspondence, artists' files, writings and an interview, financial records, scrapbooks, and photographs.

Founding documents include statements of purpose, notes outlining plans for establishing a gallery, letters, and lists of expenses. Included are several versions of the gallery's manifesto "For the Union of Aesthetics and Ethics," drafted by founding members Martha Baird, Louis Dienes, Nat Herz, Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman, Sheldon Kranz, Barbara Lekberg, Nancy Starrels, and others.

Correspondence consists of letters between Dorothy Koppelman and artists, museums, and arts organizations. Subjects discussed are the scheduling of exhibitions and the gallery's lending of artwork to cultural institutions. Included are Dorothy's letters to art critics, including Dore Ashton, Thomas Hess, and Hilton Kramer seeking press coverage for the gallery's exhibitions. Among the additional frequent correspondents are Sigmund Abeles, American Federation of Arts, Philip Bragar, Lawrence Campbell, Museum of Modern Art (New York), Peter Milton, Lee Nordness, Andrew Rush, and Lynd Ward. Also found are scattered letters from Chaim Koppelman, Eli Siegel, and Theodoros Stamos.

Artists' files document approximately seventy artists and include curriculum vitae, letters, and scattered materials, e.g., exhibition brochures and invitations. Exhibition files provide an overview of the gallery's dealings with artists, museums, and the press, with the bulk of the material dating from 1955-1985. Materials include biographical information, correspondence, sales of artwork, printed material, photographs of exhibition installations and artwork.

Writings and an interview contain annotated typescripts and handwritten drafts on Aesthetic Realism by Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman and others. Included are several draft versions of David Bourdon's interview with Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman. The Koppelmans discuss the influence of Aesthetic Realism in their personal and professional lives as well as the critical response by the press and others to Aesthetic Realism's place in art history.

Financial and legal records consist of ledgers, financial reports, sales and loans, and consignment receipts, with the majority of the records dating from 1955-1983; scattered legal materials document the incorporation of the Terrain Gallery with the Aesthetic Realism Foundation.

Five scrapbooks contain a variety of exhibition materials: letters, statements about the gallery, lists, announcements, and printed material. Two of the five scrapbooks chronicle the gallery's early exhibitions from 1955 through 1960. The other scrapbooks document three exhibitions held at the Terrain Gallery.

Photographs are of Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman, Harold Jacobs, Gerson Leiber, Vincent Longo, Ad Reinhardt, and others. There are a few photographs of artwork by Michael Ponce de Leon and Edith Schloss.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series:

Missing Title

Series 1: Founding Documents, 1953-1966 (Box 1; 0.1 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1950s-1981 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 3: Artists' Files, circa 1950s-2001 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 4: Exhibition Files, circa 1950s-2005 (Boxes 1-4, 6; 3.2 linear feet)

Series 5: Writings and Interview, 1955-1974 (Boxes 4-5; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 6: Financial and Legal Records, 1955-1984 (Box 5; 0.8 linear feet)

Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1955-2000 (Boxes 5, 6; 0.5 linear feet)

Series 8: Photographs, 1957-circa 1980s (Box 5; 0.1 linear feet)
Historical Note:
The Terrain Gallery is an art gallery in New York, N.Y., established in 1955 by Dorothy Koppelman (1920-) and informed by the guiding philosophy of Eli Siegel's Aesthetic Realism. The Terrain has as its motto as stated by Siegel, "In reality opposites are one; art shows this" and also gave rise to the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, a not-for-profit educational foundation."

In 1954, Dorothy Koppelman (1920-) and her husband artist Chaim Koppelman (1920-2009) formed a partnership with colleagues—artists, writers, photographers—to establish the Terrain Gallery. The gallery's first home was at 20 West 16th Street in New York City, and then moved to 39 Grove Street, New York, N.Y. from 1963- 1973; in 1973, the gallery moved to its present address at 141 Greene Street. Simultaneously, the Terrain Gallery gave rise to the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, a not-for-profit educational foundation. Terrain Gallery continues to give exhibitions and presentations based on Eli Siegel's statement: "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."

The Terrain has featured paintings, sculptures, watercolors, and graphics, as well as photographic exhibitions, which have shown the work of both younger and established artists. Representative art photographers have included Ralph Hattersley, David Bernstein, Louis Dienes, Nat Herz, Lou Bernstein, Andre Kertesz, Steve Poleskie, Len Bernstein, and Harvey Spears. Every exhibition has included comment by artists and critics about how opposites are one in the technique and form of the works of art on view. Chaim Koppelman, for many years, headed the gallery's Print Division; printmakers such as Will Barnet, Leonard Baskin, Robert Conover, Edmond Casarella, Vincent Longo, and Nicholas Krushenick were frequent exhibitors. Though the Terrain does not maintain a stable of artists, the gallery has represented many well-known artists, including Richard Anuszkiewicz, Robert Blackburn, Lois Dodd, William King, Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman, Roy Lichtenstein, Harold Krisel, Larry Rivers, Clare Romano, and Arnold Schmidt.

Beginning in 1955 with a series of talks by the Seurat Art Club, the gallery has held lectures, seminars, and dramatic presentations that are open to artists, scholars, and the general public. As part of its educational outreach, the Terrain Gallery publishes catalogs, broadsides, announcements, and monographs. Eli Siegel's seminal fifteen questions, "Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?" was published in Terrain Gallery's opening announcement, February 26, 1955, and subsequently reprinted in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and elsewhere.

Bennett Schiff, art critic for a major New York newspaper, wrote in June, 1957, "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…Aesthetic Realism: 'The art of liking oneself through seeing the world, art, and oneself as the aesthetic oneness of opposites'…the theory developed by Eli Siegel….It is a building, positive vision."

In 1972, the Terrain Gallery appointed Carrie Wilson to serve as co-director with Dorothy Koppelman. The following year, the Terrain became part of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation which includes in its curriculum courses in the visual arts. The Terrain Gallery continues to hold exhibitions and presentations based on the principles of Aesthetic Realism. Chaim Koppelman died in 2009 in New York City. Dorothy Koppelman (1920-) is a consultant on the faculty of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, and serves as one of the gallery's coordinators with Carrie Wilson, Marcia Rackow, Nancy Huntting, Dale Laurin, Donita Ellison, and Dan McClung.
Related Materials:
Also found in the Archives of American Art is the Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman papers, circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005.
Provenance:
The Terrain Gallery records were donated by Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman in 2006.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Topic:
Art -- Philosophy  Search this
Aesthetic Realism  Search this
Function:
Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Scrapbooks
Photographs
Transcripts
Citation:
The Terrain Gallery records, circa 1950s-2005, bulk 1955-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
AAA.terrgall
See more items in:
Terrain Gallery records
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9ea26786e-ec4d-4715-abc2-09afc04077da
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-terrgall
Online Media:

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