Terry Dintenfass was an American art dealer.

Terry Dintenfass established her first gallery, the D Contemporary, in 1954 in the lobby of the Traymore Hotel

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, during the 1950s and 1960s, the Traymore diminished in...

 in Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...

. In 1959, she moved to Manhattan and opened the Terry Dintenfass Gallery.. Terry Dintenfass was one of the last generation of women dealers, along with Edith Halpert

Edith Halpert

Edith Halpert or Edith Gregor Halpert was a pioneering New York City dealer of Modern art. Halpert brought recognition and market success to many avant-garde American artists over her forty year career from 1926 through the 1960's...

, Grace Borgenicht, Betty Parsons

Betty Parsons

Betty Parsons, born Betty Bierne Pierson, was an American artist and art dealer known for her early promotion of Abstract Expressionism. She was known as "the den mother of Abstract Expressionism"...

, Antoinette Kraushaar, Joan Washburn and others, who dominated the New York art world during the 1950's to the late 1970's. Terry took a keen interest in social and political issues and through Edith Halpert of Downtown Gallery was introduced to the works of African American artists including Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence

Jacob Lawrence was an American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth...

, whom she represented for 25 years, and Horace Pippin

Horace Pippin

Horace Pippin was a self-taught African-American painter. The injustice of slavery and American segregation figure prominently in many of his works.-Biography:...

. Dintenfass notably represented African-American artists in a time when Manhattan Galleries displayed very little African-American Art. The "Social Realist" painters Philip Evergood

Philip Evergood

Philip Howard Francis Dixon Evergood was an American painter, etcher, lithographer, sculptor, illustrator and writer. He was particularly active during the Depression and World War II era.-Life:...

 and Robert Gwathmey

Robert Gwathmey

Robert Gwathmey was an American social realist painter. His wife was photographer Rosalie Gwathmey and his son was architect Charles Gwathmey.-References:...

 helped shaped the gallery with a strong social consciousness

Social consciousness

Social consciousness is consciousness shared within a society. It can also be defined as social awareness; to be aware of the problems that different societies and communities face on a day-to-day basis; to be conscious of the difficulties and hardships of society.- Theory :Many studies have been...

.

Once settled in New York, Dintenfass became the protege of Edith Halpert, one of the doyennes

Doyen

Doyen is a surname. The word doyen is derived from the French term for dean, e.g. Dean and Dean ....

 of the New York art world since the 1930s. When Halpert retired in the early 1960s, the Arthur Dove

Arthur Dove

Arthur Garfield Dove was an American artist. An early American modernist, he is often considered the first American abstract painter.-Youth and education:...

 estate joined Terry Dintenfass, Inc. which then had a stable of William King

William King

William King may refer to:*Bill King, , American radio announcer*Billy King , Irish cricketer*Willie King , blues guitarist and singer...

, Robert Gwathmey, Philip Evergood, Sidney Goodman, Hyman Bloom

Hyman Bloom

Hyman Bloom was a painter. His work is influenced by his Jewish heritage, Eastern religions as well as artists including Altdorfer, Grunewald, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, William Blake, Rudolph Bresdin, J.M.W...

, Antonio Frasconi

Antonio Frasconi

Antonio Frasconi is an artist known for his woodcuts. He has won a number of awards and illustrated over 100 books. His major work took ten years to complete and is a series of woodcuts that illustrate "The Disappeared"...

, among others, and later the sculptor Elisabeth Frink

Elisabeth Frink

Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink, DBE, CH, RA was an English sculptor and printmaker...

. 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 the estate of Arthur Dove. After maintaining a gallery in Manhattan for nearly 40 years, Dintenfass retired in 1999. Her business is currently run by her son Andrew and his wife Ann.

Dintenfass' only sibling was pioneering psychopharmacologist and two-time Lasker Award

Lasker Award

The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary...

 winner Nathan S. Kline

Nathan S. Kline

Nathan S. Kline, M.D. was a man of diverse talents and interests whose mind was ever open to new ideas. He was best known for his pioneering work with psychopharmacologic drugs....

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