Terrain Gallery records
name: label: Creator
content: Terrain Gallery
label: Names
content: American Federation of Arts
label: Names
content: Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Abeles, Sigmund, 1934-
label: Names
content: Ashton, Dore
label: Interviewer
content: Bourdon, David
label: Names
content: Bragar, Philip F., 1925-
label: Names
content: Campbell, Lawrence
label: Names
content: Hess, Thomas B.
label: Names
content: Jacobs, Harold, 1932-
label: Names
content: Koppelman, Chaim, 1920-2009
label: Names
content: Koppelman, Chaim, 1920-2009 -- Photographs
label: Names
content: Koppelman, Dorothy, 1920-2017
label: Names
content: Koppelman, Dorothy, 1920-2017 -- Photographs
label: Names
content: Kramer, Hilton
label: Names
content: Leiber, Gerson August, 1921-
label: Names
content: Longo, Vincent, 1923-
label: Names
content: Milton, Peter, 1930-
label: Names
content: Nordness, Lee
label: Names
content: Reinhardt, Ad, 1913-1967 -- Photographs
label: Names
content: Rush, Andrew
label: Names
content: Siegel, Eli, 1902-
label: Names
content: Stamos, Theodoros, 1922-1997
label: Names
content: Ward, Lynd, 1905-1985
label: Names
content: Wilson, Carrie
topic: label: Topic
content: Art -- Philosophy
label: Topic
content: Aesthetic Realism
label: Topic
content: Women arts administrators
label: Topic
content: Women art dealers
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Terrain Gallery records were donated by Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman in 2006.
creator: label: Creator
content: Terrain Gallery
setName: label: See more items in
content: Terrain Gallery records
abstract: label: Summary
content: 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.
bioghist: label: Historical Note
content: The Terrain Gallery (est. 1955) is an art gallery in New York City founded by Dorothy Koppelman and informed by the guiding philosophy of Eli Siegel's Aesthetic Realism. 

Dorothy Myers Koppelman (1920-2017) was an artist and art instructor. Born in New York City, Koppelman studied art at Brooklyn College, the American Artists School, and the Art Students League. In 1942, she began studying Aesthetic Realism with the movement's founder, Eli Siegel. Koppelman taught art classes at Brooklyn College and the National Academy of Design, and her work was featured in group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among many other institutions.  

In 1954, Dorothy Koppelman and her husband, fellow artist Chaim Koppelman (1920-2009), formed a partnership with colleagues — artists, writers, photographers — to establish the Terrain Gallery at 20 West 16th Street. In 1963, the gallery relocated to 39 Grove Street; in 1973, it moved to its present address at 141 Greene Street in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. Simultaneously, the Terrain Gallery gave rise to the Aesthetic Realism Foundation, a not-for-profit educational foundation. Terrain Gallery would frequently host exhibitions and presentations inspired by the following quote by Eli Siegel: "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."

The Terrain's exhibitions have included paintings, sculpture, watercolors, graphics, and photography, and often feature work by both young and established artists. Terrain Gallery shows frequently incorporate comments from artists and critics about how Siegel's philosophy of opposites is present in the works of art on view. 

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. Photographers who have exhibited at the gallery include Ralph Hattersley, David Bernstein, Louis Dienes, Nat Herz, Lou Bernstein, Andre Kertesz, Steve Poleskie, Len Bernstein, and Harvey Spears. For many years, Chaim Koppelman 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. 

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 series of fifteen  questions, titled "Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?", was published in Terrain Gallery's opening announcement on February 26, 1955, and subsequently reprinted in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and elsewhere.

Art critic Bennett Schiff 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 visual arts courses in its curriculum. later became a consultant on the faculty of the Aesthetic Realism Foundation and served as one of the Terrain Gallery's coordinators along with Carrie Wilson, Marcia Rackow, Nancy Huntting, Dale Laurin, Donita Ellison, and Dan McClung. The Terrain Gallery continues to hold exhibitions and presentations based around the principles of Aesthetic Realism.
function: label: Function
content: Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State)
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 5.3 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1950s-2005
label: Date
content: bulk 1955-1985
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.terrgall
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Transcripts
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 8 series:

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)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The collection was processed to a minimal level and a finding aid prepared by Joy Weiner in June 2012.
The Archives of American Art has implemented minimal processing tactics when possible in order to increase information about and access to more of our collections.  

Minimal processing included arrangement to the series, subseries, and folder levels. Generally, items within folders were simply verified with folder titles, but not arranged further. Folders within boxes were not numbered. The collection was rehoused in archival containers and folders, but not all staples and clips were removed.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Transcripts
scopecontent: label: Scope and Content Note
content: 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.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Also found in the Archives of American Art is the Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman papers, circa 1930s-2006, bulk 1942-2005.