The Terrain Gallery
of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation
THE TERRAIN is the first gallery to show the inextricable relation between the technique of art and people’s lives. Since its opening in 1955 in New York City, the Terrain has presented exhibitions of contemporary paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs, with comment based on Aesthetic Realism, the philosophy founded by Eli Siegel, and on his historic Fifteen Questions, Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?* Among the artists exhibiting have been Will Barnet, Robert Blackburn, William Clutz, Lois Dodd, William King, Andre Kertesz, Chaim Koppelman, Peter Passuntino, Stephen Poleskie, Elfi Schuselka, Richard Sloat, George O. Stadnik. *See also en Español and in Italiano.
DOROTHY KOPPELMAN—Paintings, Prints, Drawings
Online Classes in the Visual Arts & Film—
The Visual Arts & the Opposites
- Apr 14: Ingres & Delacroix—Musée National Eugène Delacroix Learn more.
“If It Moves, It Can Move You”: Opposites in the Cinema
- Apr 22: Registration begins for a new semester Learn more.
Eli Siegel on the Visual Arts:
- Beauty—& Jackson Pollock, Too – 1955 essay by Eli Siegel reprinted in Sotheby catalog Nov. 11, 2015.
- “The World of Art” Interview of Eli Siegel on WKCR-FM Columbia University Radio.
- How Aesthetic Realism Sees Art – TRO #2063 begins serializing this great lecture by Eli Siegel; Ellen Reiss writes on the Terrain Gallery.
- Art as Composition, Art as Criticism, Art as Happiness and more essays by Eli Siegel.
- The Opposites Theory – a major work by Eli Siegel on all the arts serialized in TROs #1686 – 1700.
In the News:
A MAJOR NEW WEBSITE!—THE CHAIM AND DOROTHY KOPPELMAN FOUNDATION, established to exhibit and preserve the works of these two major 20th-century American artists, has launched a new website, containing works by printmaker Chaim Koppelman (1920-2009) and painter and founding director of the Terrain Gallery, Dorothy Koppelman (1920-2017). It presents, too, some of their powerful, profoundly thrilling writings on art, arising from their study of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism with the great American poet and critic Eli Siegel. read more
Featured Articles:
Beatrix Potter
Wonder and Matter-of-Fact Meet—The Imagination of Beatrix Potter by Marcia Rackow tells why her work is important. And through June 9th there’s an exciting Morgan Library & Museum show “Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature.” more
Edward Hopper
Separate & Together: Opposites in the Art & Life of Edward Hopper by Dorothy Koppelman. What really is the message for us in Hopper’s paintings? We feature this groundbreaking explanation. more
Terrain Gallery at Archives of American Art:
Terrain Gallery Records are Online at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art: “Files document over one hundred and forty exhibitions as well as the gallery’s relationship with artists…. 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…. 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.” more