Five Artists—& the Opposites

We’re proud to present work by five artists—some figurative and some abstract, each uniquely individual. Yet, with all their difference, their power as art is explained by this landmark principle by Eli Siegel, founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism:

All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one
of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.

People throughout the centuries have hoped to understand what beauty is and why art matters. That hope has been met at last. Aesthetic Realism resplendently shows: art is a guide to seeing truly the world and our own selves.

For instance, Chaim Koppelman’s pastel Still Life is a beautiful relation of radiance and shadow, glory and humility. A number of objects, mainly jars, close together and rather dark, are atop a box—and supported on them is a red mug. All these ordinary objects seem at once shadowy and aglow. And most remarkably, the plain box on which they stand and the space before it have the greatest radiance of all. Does the work say there is a radiance we need to see in things themselves, even things we’ve thought were dull?

The Terrain Gallery has presented Aesthetic Realism’s magnificent way of seeing art and life since 1955. We are immensely grateful to continue, freshly, in this, our 70th year!

— ARTISTS—

CHAIM KOPPELMAN / ELFI SCHUSELKA
FRANCINE HERNANDEZ
JAMES JUTHSTROM / DOROTHY KOPPELMAN

Click on the image to read the comment on each work.