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, it 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, Dorothy Koppelman, Peter Passuntino, Stephen Poleskie, Elfi Schuselka, Richard Sloat, George O. Stadnik. *See also en Español and in Italiano.

SURFACE TO BEGIN WITH—

Silkscreens of the 1960s

Steve Poleskie & the Artists of Chiron Press

GALLERY HOURS: WED, FRI, SAT 1—5 PM THROUGH APRIL 19, 2025

Steve Poleskie, Quequog Tondo (with cloud)

“Love this gallery—thank you!”—N.S., Austin, TX

“Awesome”—P.M., NYC

“Truly meditative, bold pieces, inspiring”—Z.D., Spotsylvania, VA

“Wonderful, Graceful”—K.E., Seoul

“Amazing, awesome seeing surface and depth”—C.B., Brooklyn, NY

“Love the work and learning about the opposites”—J.S., Robbinsville, NJ

“I am so excited to see so much meaning”—S.S., Tokyo

This is a show of silkscreen prints—vivid, daring, imaginative, ground-breaking—created here in New York City at Steve Poleskie’s Chiron Press. And it is a show with comment about what makes these silkscreens unique and thrilling.

In Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites? Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism, asks about Depth and Surface: “Is art an interplay of surface and sensation as ‘this’ and depth and thought at ‘all that’?” Yes! And in the 1960s, in silkscreen prints, these opposites came together in a new way—one that affected people mightily….more

This is a show of silkscreen prints—vivid, daring, imaginative, ground-breaking—created here in New York City at Steve Poleskie’s Chiron Press. And it is a show with comment about what makes these silkscreens unique and thrilling.

In Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites? Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism, asks about Depth and Surface: “Is art an interplay of surface and sensation as ‘this’ and depth and thought at ‘all that’?” Yes! And in the 1960s, in silkscreen prints, these opposites came together in a new way—one that affected people mightily….more

Online Classes in the Visual Arts & Film—

The Visual Arts & the Opposites

  • Mar 23:  Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c.1504 – Royal Academy Learn more.

“If It Moves, It Can Move You”: Opposites in the Cinema

  • Mar 26:  The Lightsome & Serious in the Films of Jack Lemmon Learn more.

Eli Siegel on Aesthetic Realism & the Visual Arts:

Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral

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

Aesthetic Realism Art Criticism:

Vincent Van Gogh


We feature the important talk by Dorothy Koppelman: “Van Gogh’s Bedroom at Arles; or, The Outside World Is Friendly“: “The wall is alive with the motion of inside becoming outside, outside changing places with inside.”

Egyptian Art

Great Pyramids of Giza


Can We Be Serious & Lighthearted at Once?—What We Can Learn from Egyptian Art! by Carrie Wilson. “I remember drawing a copy of a cut-away cross-section of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza….”

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

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