ON THE COMING TO BE OF THE TERRAIN GALLERY
By Dorothy Koppelman
Dorothy Koppelman writes about her early study with Eli Siegel, poet, critic, and founder of Aesthetic Realism, and how it led to the opening of the Terrain Gallery in 1955:
DOROTHY KOPPELMAN, 2002. Photo by Ruth Oron.
After more than ten years of study, which included, in addition to attending Mr. Siegel‘s lectures on the poetry of the world, varied lectures on literature—English, French, etc.; and the lives of authors—(consider his brilliant literary achievement of explaining the meaning of all of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets!)—as well as in-depth study of the relation of art and life, first stated by Mr. Siegel as “The resolution of conflict in self is like the making one of opposites in art,” I came to have a conviction and an impelling emotion. I saw Aesthetic Realism as true about art, about my own life, and about the lives and work of artists I knew and read about.
I also saw in the circumstances of Mr. Siegel’s weekly lectures, lessons of my own and others, personal and friendly meetings on various occasions, a person, a teacher, a man who, in every situation was always honest, always true to his own philosophy. He did not flatter, he did not pander, he did not compromise. He rated the desire to know, the desire to see, the achievement of that seeing and knowing as true success.
Seeing Eli Siegel's desire to know a person, any person, was the deepest and most beautiful experience in my life. In Aesthetic Realism lessons, which were cultural events based on the Socratic question and answer method, and to which many persons were invited as participants or guests, there was “the aesthetic criticism of self.”
I was understood. And that understanding included my purpose, and the direction of my life’s ambition as an artist.
With the encouragement and support of my colleagues—poets, artists, and intellectuals in various fields—I decided to open what came to be called the Terrain Gallery, where Aesthetic Realism in its variety and scope could be presented to the public.
I had seen that the basic structure of opposites was the foundation not only of the visual arts but was a new and unprecedented means of relation of all the arts and humanities. I saw that the principles of Aesthetic Realism were indisputably true.
The Terrain Gallery opened in 1955 with the publication of the great 15 Questions, Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites? and exhibitions and public presentations essentially based on these true-seeing-of-art-and-beauty–in–the-world questions continue to this day. Much has happened in these fifty years; and every event in my varied life, and in the events of the world has solidified and widened my conviction. I believe that it is every person’s ambition to be able to find something in the outside world we can wholeheartedly respect intellectually and count on. That has been my life’s good fortune.