Biography

Terry Netter was born in New Rochelle and raised in Bronxville ,NY. The youngest of 4 boys , he attended and graduated from Georgetown Prep. Following graduation he entered the Jesuit Order and in 1960 was ordained in Innsbruck, Austria where he studied theology under the great Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner, S.J.

After returning to the States and to a position on the faculty of Georgetown University he earned an MFA from George Washington University . His first solo exhibition followed at the Allen Funt Gallery in New York City. The exhibit was well received and Stuart Preston, former critic and Art reporter for the NY Times reviewed the show and said that he had”an abstract style of visionary power”.

In 1966 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Art and Philosophy at Fordham University where he helped form the curriculum at the campus at Lincoln Center. In 1967 he joined the stable of the Frank Rehn Gallery on Madison Avenue where he had several solo exhibitions.

In 1968 Terry petitioned for and received Papal permission from his religious vows to leave the Jesuit Order. Shortly thereafter he married Therese Franzese who at the time was Assistant to Sir Rudolf Bing, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera. The event was recorded in Life Magazine in the October 1968 issue in an article entitled “A Priest who chose to marry”. His second solo exhibit in NYCity was held during that month.

The following year in 1969 he was appointed Chairperson of the Department of Fine Arts at Santa Clara University. While there he had a one man show at the Bolles Gallery in San Francisco, the de Saisset Gallery and Museum at Santa Clara, and at the Rehn Gallery in New York.

In 1974 he was recruited to be the founding Director of the Paul Mellon Arts Center at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut which Paul Mellon had asked I.M.Pei to design. While at Choate he had his third solo exhibit at the Rehn Gallery in NY.

In 1979 he was recruited to be the founding Director of the newly built Fine Arts Center at the State University of NY at Stony Brook , a position he held for 18 years. During this period he was invited to many group shows and had several solo exhibits.

During his tenure at Stony Brook University he recommended that his friend and noted artist Lee Krasner be honored and receive the Stony Brook Foundation award and in 1980 Lee received her award for her lifelong dedication to the arts.

Following Lee Krasner’s death in 1984 he was instrumental in arranging for the donation of her East Hampton property to the Stony Brook Foundation to be operated according to her instructions as a “public museum and library” preserving the home and studio where she and her husband, Jackson Pollock, created their major abstract expressionist paintings to encourage the study of modern American art. The transfer from the Pollock Krasner Foundation was accomplished in 1987 and the Pollock Krasner House and Study Center opened in June 1988

In 1997 he was invited to join the stable of the Woodward Gallery in New York City where he had solo exhibitions and was part of group shows .

In 1998 he was named Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Jacksonville University a position he held for 7 years, While there he and his wife purchased a house in the Loire Valley in France where he spent months each year painting and in the solitude of his studio gave himself to the mysteries found in the diffused light and the long horiontals of shades of gray and blue of the French countryside. Many of these later works were shown in France, at the Woodward Gallery in NY and Gallery North in Setauket Long Island between 1998 and 2016.

In 2001 he was commissioned to do a series of paintings for the inaugural exhibition of the EUR-AM Center for International Studies at the Abbey in Pontlevoy, France by the Director of the University of Southern Mississippi study abroad program. The event of 9/11 became the theme of the paintings which were shown there and toured in the US beginning at Jacksonville University where he is Dean Emeritus.

In 2013 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by the Stony Brook University for his lifelong work in the Arts, In 2017 he was honored by Gallery North as a community treasure in recognition for his contribution to the arts in the community and his years of service.

Terence Netter is represented by the Woodward Gallery

132 A Eldridge Street
New York, NY 10002
www.WoodwardGallery.Net
Phone: 212.966.3411
E-Mail Art@WoodwardGallery.Net