JACK GOLDSTEIN

“In the late 1970’s, Goldstein produced a series of paintings which emerged from a body of earlier photographic and photo-collage works. As a series they were united by their use of an image of a tin figure floating in a large field of color. In Untitled, 1979 (included in the exhibition), for example, three spacemen float in a vast black void. Separated by the framing devices which divide each of the panels, these figures are cut off not only from each other, but from their life support apparatus. If the vast, open landscapes of the west and the craggy river landscapes of the east were identified as sublime subjects for many 19th-century American and Canadian painters, then Goldstein proposes that, in the late 20th century, outerspace, with its infinite expanses and unknown dangers, has taken on the same sublime connotations. Most would agree that there are few images more sublime than the opening scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey or the image of the exploding Challenger space shuttle. I would remind you, however, that it is the image that is sublime rather than the technological object or apparatus.” Bruce Grenville

Jack Goldstein was born in Montreal, Canada, and studied at Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, and California Institute for the Arts, Valencia, CA. He died on March 14, 2003 in San Bernardino.

Selected one person museum exhibitions include: The Whitney Museum of American Art, Jack Goldstein, MAGASIN - Centre National D’Art De Grenoble, Grenoble, France, Kunstverein In Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, Jack Goldstein: Paintings from the 80’s, Luckman Gallery, Cal State Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 2002, Daniel Buchholz Gallery, Cologne, Germany, 2000; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Canada (travelled to the Alberta College of Art Gallery, Calgary; Dulop Art Gallery, Regina; The Power Plant and Ontario Gallery of Art, Toronto), 1992; The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1988; Stadtisches Galerie Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany, Kunstverein Ingolstadt, Germany, 1985; Spectacolor, Times Square, New York, NY 1984; Museen voor Hedendaagse Kunsten, Ghent, Belgium; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland, 1981; The Kitchen, New York, NY, 1980; The Groningen Museum, Groningen, Netherlands, 1979; Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY, 1978; Kabinett für aktuelle Kunst, Bremerhaven, Germany, 1976.

Selected group exhibitions include: Light, Artprop, New York, NY, 1994; American Art of the 80s, Trento, Italy, and Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA, 1991; A Forest of Signs, MoCA, Los Angeles, CA 1989; Appropriated Images, MoCA, Los Angeles, CA, 1988; Skeptical Beliefs, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL; The New Romantic Landscape, First Ecuador Painting Binennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cuenca, Ecuador; L’Epoque, La Mode, La Morale, La Passion, Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou, 1987; Prospect ‘86, Museum of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Artists Films, White Columns, New York, NY, 1986; Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York, 1985; An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture, MoMA, New York: A Decade of New Art, Artist’s Space and Metro Pictures, New York, NY; Currents, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA,1984; New York Painting Today, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA; Back to the USA, Kunstmuseum Lucerne, France, 1983; Prefiguration and Figuration of the Catastrophe, Centre d’art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland; Documenta 7 Kassel, Germany; A Fatal Attraction: Art and the Media, Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL; Image Scavengers, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadephia, PA, 1982; Westkunst Heute, Museum der Stadt, Koln, Cologne, Germany, 1981; Horror Pleni: Pictures in New York Today, Padiglione d’art Contemporanea, Milan, Italy; Sound, The Institute for Art and Urban Resources, P.S. 1, New York, NY; 1979; The Record as Artwork from Futurism to Conceptual Art, Fort Worth Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Avant-Garde Film: Jack Goldstein, Babette Magolte and Yvonne Rainer, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1977; Artists Films, Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 1974; Twenty-four Young Los Angeles Artists, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, 1971.