[1] Terry Dintenfass established her first gallery, the D Contemporary, in 1954[2][3] in the lobby of the Traymore Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey,[4] where she sold the work of Milton Avery, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ben Shahn, John Marin, Max Weber, among others.

She showed work on consignment from prominent New York dealers, and became especially close to Edith Halpert, whose Downtown Gallery represented the estate of Arthur Dove.

[5][1] She was part of a wave of women dealers, along with Halpert, Grace Borgenicht, Betty Parsons, Antoinette M. Kraushaar, Joan Washburn and others, who worked the New York art market between the 1940s to the 1980s.

She showed the works of African-American artists including Jacob Lawrence, whom she would represent for 25 years, Raymond Saunders, and Horace Pippin.

[6] When Halpert retired in the early 1960s, the Arthur Dove estate joined Terry Dintenfass, Inc. which then had a stable of William King, Gwathmey, Evergood, Sidney Goodman, Hyman Bloom, Antonio Frasconi, among others, and later the sculptor Elisabeth Frink.