Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Terry Dintenfass, Inc. Records, 1947-1987, Bulk 1961-1983 in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.terrdint
Creators:
Terry Dintenfass, Inc.
Dates:
1947-1987
bulk 1961-1983
Languages:
The collection is in English
Physical Description:
22.1 Linear feet
Repository:
The records of New York art gallery Terry Dintenfass, Inc. date from 1947 to 1987, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1961 to 1983, and measure 22.1 linear feet. The records are comprised of administrative files, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, and financial records.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The records of New York art gallery Terry Dintenfass, Inc. date from 1947 to 1987, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1961 to 1983, and measure 22.1 linear feet. The records include administrative files, correspondence, exhibition files, artists' files, and financial records.
Administrative files include advertising and membership records, insurance documents, a guest book, resumes, and agreements with other corporations. Correspondence is with artists, galleries, museums, and arts organizations. There is a significant amount of correspondence regarding the Art Dealers Association of America. Exhibition files are found for numerous exhibitions to which Dintenfass either loaned art or helped to organize. There is extensive documentation of the 20 Galleries/20 Years exhibition held at the Grace Borgenicht Gallery and the Terry Dintenfass Gallery in 1982 and the "Machine Themed Shows" in 1974-1975.
Artists' files comprise the largest group of materials within the collection. Files for Hyman Bloom, Alan Cober, Arthur Dove, Philip Evergood, Richard Fleischner, Antonio Frasconi, Sidney Goodman, William King, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Merkin, Horace Pippin, Paul Suttman, and Harold Tovish bulk the largest.
Financial records contain artist expense and sales ledgers, consignment papers, invoices and receipts, as well as records for D Contemporary Paintings.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 5 series.
  • Missing Title
  • Series 1: Administrative Files, 1961-1983 (1.0 linear feet; Box 1)
  • Series 2: Correspondence, 1961-1981 (1.0 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
  • Series 3: Exhibition Files, 1962-1983 (4.5 linear feet; Boxes 2-7, OV 23)
  • Series 4: Artists' Files, 1947-1987 (8.5 linear feet; Boxes 7-15, OV 23)
  • Series 5: Financial Records, 1959-1981 (7.0 linear feet; Boxes 16-22, OV 23)

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Terry Dintenfass, Inc. is a New York City art gallery founded in 1959 by Terry Dintenfass (1920-2004).
In 1954, Theresa "Terry" Dintenfass opened D Contemporary Paintings in Atlantic City, New Jersey. With financial backing from Armand Erpf, she moved the gallery to New York City in 1959 and changed the name to Terry Dintenfass Gallery. There, she became a protégé of Downtown Gallery owner Edith Halpert. Dintenfass was one of several notable female art dealers in the city during the 1940s-1980s among Edith Halpert, Betty Parsons, Grace Borgenicht, Antoinette Kraushaar, and others. She showed work on consignment from other dealers, and when Edith Halpert retired, Terry Dintenfass, Inc. began to represent the estate of Arthur Dove. Other notable artists represented by the gallery included social realists Philip Evergood and Robert Gwathmey, and African American painters Horace Pippin and Jacob Lawrence, whom she represented for 25 years. The gallery's stable also included William King, Sidney Goodman, Hyman Bloom, Antonio Frasconi, and others.
After Dintenfass retired in 1999, her son Andrew took over the business and continues to run the gallery today. Terry Dintenfass died in 2004 in Manhattan.

Administration

Author
Sarah Mundy
Sponsor
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was donated in 1995 by Terry Dintenfass.
Processing Information
The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Sarah Mundy in 2016 with funding from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care Pool Fund, using accelerated processing strategies recently implemented by the Archives to increase information about and access to more of our collections. For this collection, accelerated processing included arrangement to the series, subseries and folder levels, adhering to the creator's original arrangement as much as possible. Generally, folder contents were simply verified with the original folder titles, but items within folders were not arranged further. All materials were rehoused in archival folders and boxes for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.

Using the Collection

Terms of Use
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Conditions Governing Access
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Preferred Citation
Terry Dintenfass, Inc. records, 1947-1987, bulk 1961-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Related Materials
Also found at the Archives of American Art is an oral history interview with Terry Dintenfass conducted by Paul Cummings on December 2, 1974-January 13, 1975 for the Archives of American Art.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art, American Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Visitors' books Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State) Function Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Merkin, Richard Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lawrence, Jacob, 1917-2000 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tovish, Harold, 1921-2008 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Grace Borgenicht Gallery Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dove, Arthur Garfield, 1880-1946 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art Dealers Association of America Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Suttman, Paul, 1933-1993 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bloom, Hyman, 1913- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Pippin, Horace, 1888-1946 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Fleischner, Richard, 1944- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cober, Alan E. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Dintenfass, Terry, 1920- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
King, William, 1925-2015 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Goodman, Sidney Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Frasconi, Antonio Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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