Terry Dintenfass (April 4, 1920 – October 26, 2004) was an American
art dealer
An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art.
An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationshi ...
.
Career
Terry Dintenfass established her first gallery, the D Contemporary, in 1954BigCityLit.com Archives of American Art /ref> in the lobby of the
Traymore Hotel
The Traymore Hotel was a resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Begun as a small boarding house in 1879, the hotel expanded and became one of the city's premier resorts. As Atlantic City began to decline in its popularity as a resort town, durin ...
in
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.
, where she sold the work of
Milton Avery
Milton Clark Avery (March 7, 1885 – January 3, 1965Haskell, B. (2003). "Avery, Milton". Grove Art Online.) was an American modern painter. Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City. He was the husband ...
,
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...
,
Ben Shahn
Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''.
Biography
Shahn was born ...
,
John Marin
John Marin (December 23, 1870 – October 2, 1953) was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors.
Biography
Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. His mother died nine days after his birth, ...
,
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
, among others. She showed work on consignment from prominent New York dealers, and became especially close to
Edith Halpert
Edith Halpert or Edith Gregor Halpert (née Edith Gregoryevna Fivoosiovitch; 1900–1970) was a pioneering New York City Art dealer, dealer of American modernism, American modern art and American Folk Art, American folk art. She brought recognitio ...
Arthur Dove
Arthur Garfield Dove (August 2, 1880 – November 23, 1946) was an American artist. An early American modernist, he is often considered the first American abstract painter.. Dove used a wide range of media, sometimes in unconventional combinati ...
. In 1959, Dintenfass moved to Manhattan and opened the Terry Dintenfass Gallery.Terry Dintenfass, Inc /ref> She was part of a wave of women dealers, along with
Halpert Halpert is a Norman French surname which varied from the French surname ''Halbert'', and ultimately derives from the Germanic masculine name Adelbert. It may refer to:
People
*Edith Halpert (1900–1970), Russian-born American art dealer and colle ...
Betty Parsons
Betty Parsons (born Betty Bierne Pierson, January 31, 1900 – July 23, 1982) was an American artist, art dealer, and collector known for her early promotion of Abstract Expressionism. She is regarded as one of the most influential and dynamic f ...
, Antoinette M. Kraushaar, Joan Washburn and others, who worked the New York art market between the 1940s to the 1980s.
Dintenfass took a keen interest in social and political issues. She showed the works of African-American artists including
Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Armstead Lawrence (September 7, 1917 – June 9, 2000) was an American painter known for his portrayal of African-American historical subjects and contemporary life. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", although by his own ...
Horace Pippin
Horace Pippin (February 22, 1888 – July 6, 1946) was a self-taught American artist who painted a range of themes, including scenes inspired by his service in World War I, landscapes, portraits, and biblical subjects. Some of his best-known work ...
. Dintenfass notably represented African-American artists in a time when Manhattan galleries displayed little African-American art. The "
Social Realist
Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...
" painters
Philip Evergood
Philip Howard Francis Dixon Evergood (born Howard Blashki; 1901–1973) was an American painter, etcher, lithographer, sculptor, illustrator and writer.
He was particularly active during the Depression and World War II era.
Life
Philip Evergoo ...
and
Robert Gwathmey
Robert Gwathmey (January 24, 1903 – September 21, 1988) was an American social realist painter. His wife was photographer Rosalie Gwathmey(September 15, 1908 – February 12, 2001) and his son was architect Charles Gwathmey (June 19, 1938 – ...
William King William King may refer to:
Arts
*Willie King (1943–2009), American blues guitarist and singer
*William King (author) (born 1959), British science fiction author and game designer, also known as Bill King
*William King (artist) (1925–2015), Ame ...
Sidney Goodman
Sidney Goodman (January 19, 1936 – April 11, 2013) was an American figurative painter and draftsman from Philadelphia, PA who explored the human form. Goodman received public notice in the early 1960s for his oil paintings, leading to his incl ...
,
Hyman Bloom
Hyman Bloom (March 29, 1913 – August 26, 2009) was a Latvian-born American painter. His work was influenced by his Jewish heritage and Eastern religions as well as by artists including Altdorfer, Grünewald, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Blake, Bre ...
,
Antonio Frasconi
Antonio Frasconi (28 April 1919 in Montevideo, Uruguay – 8 January 2013 in Norwalk, CT, USA) was an Uruguayan - American visual artist, best known for his woodcuts. He was raised in Montevideo, Uruguay, and lived in the United States since ...
, among others, and later the sculptor
Elisabeth Frink
Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her ''Times'' obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in ...
.
The gallery represented these artists for much of the last three to four decades and is now involved in their secondary market. The gallery continues to represent th estate of Arthur Dove Artnet.com Terry Dintenfass, Inc. /ref> After maintaining a gallery in Manhattan for nearly 40 years, Dintenfass retired in 1999 and died in 2004. Her business is currently run by her son Andrew and his wife Ann.Smith, Roberta ''The New York Times'', October 29, 2004.
Dintenfass' only full sibling was psychopharmacologist and two-time Lasker Award winner Nathan Schellenberg Kline.