THE TERRAIN GALLERY is proud to be showing some of the beautiful, surprising, genuinely moving photography of our time.

What way of seeing does a good photograph come from? Whether it’s of a railroad worker in Colorado, or a single white chrysanthemum; sunny rooftops in Brooklyn or an electrical storm in the Mediterranean—in every instance, the purpose impelling the photographer was to honor the world itself.

In an Aesthetic Realism class (later published as Afternoon Regard for Photography), Eli Siegel, the founder of Aesthetic Realism, said:

“The purpose of photography is to create an emotion about the world through what has been carefully seen and selected; to use a specific object to see the meaning of the world with.”

And central to this show is the following principle stated by Mr. Siegel: “The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites.” As you look at these works and their accompanying comments, you’ll be finding out what the art of photography has to say about the world—and you.

Our title, The Honoring Eye, was a phrase Mr. Siegel used in relation to photography. It was also the title of a much-loved class taught here by photographer and Aesthetic Realism consultant Nancy Starrels (1921-84). We’ve chosen it because it describes so truly the intention behind every successful photograph.

DAVID BERNSTEIN  •  LEN BERNSTEIN  •  DAVID O. BROWN  •  AMY DIENES

LOUIS DIENES  •  VINCENT DiPIETRO  •  MARY FAGAN  •  PERRY HALL

ADAM ISLER  •  JEFFREY LANGFORD  •  DALE LAURIN  •  DAN McCLUNG

ALLAN MICHAEL  •  ARNOLD PEREY  •  MASSIMO RINVERSI

HARVEY SPEARS  •  NANCY STARRELS  •  JOHN STERN

. . . more

• Art as Composition, Art as Criticism, Art as Happiness—& more, Aesthetic Realism Art Essays by Eli Siegel.
• Beauty—& Jackson Pollock, Too – 1955 essay by Eli Siegel reprinted in Sotheby catalog Nov. 11, 2015.
• “The World of Art” Interview of Eli Siegel, speaking on Aesthetic Realism: WKCR-FM Columbia University Radio.
• How Aesthetic Realism Sees Art – TRO #2063 begins serializing this lecture by Eli Siegel; Ellen Reiss, Aesthetic Realism Chair of Education, writes on the Terrain Gallery.
• The Opposites Theory by Eli Siegel, a major work on all the arts serialized in TROs #1686 – 1700.
  

THE CHAIM & DOROTHY KOPPELMAN FOUNDATION, established to exhibit and preserve the works of these two major 20th-century American artists, has launched a major 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