jack goldstein

A performance artist with roots in minimalist sculpture, a conceptual artist who made experimental films and their audio equivalent on vinyl records, Goldstein divided his time between Los Angeles and New York during the 1970s, eventually becoming one of the lynchpins of the Pictures group, which gained its first recognition at Artist's Space in New York City in the fall of 1977.

These artists, including Goldstein, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Troy Brauntuch and, initially, Phillip Smith, came to the forefront of the 1980s art boom and flourished to varying degrees as the decade wore on. Goldstein began seriously to make paintings at this time. Eventually he became known for what he referred to as "salon paintings" — those designed both to be sold to the very rich and to secure for the artist a place in art history. Although he was accused by some of "selling out" to a bull market in painting, this tactic appropriated the art star mantle that Goldstein's work always had assumed.

As the 1980s continued and finally fizzled out there was less and less call for "salon paintings" and Goldstein's work sold less well than some others'. Reluctant to teach rather than practice full time, Goldstein left New York in the early 1990s and returned to California where he lived out the decade in relative isolation.

His early work was revived at the turn of the century and he resurfaced briefly to some renewed acclaim, but too little too late. He was featured in the 2004 Whitney Biennial as a major film influence alongside Stan Brakhage, less than a year after he took his own life in San Bernardino, California on March 14, 2003.

Goldstein may be remembered for a certain conceptual/representational approach to picturemaking that helped shape a generation's artists and beyond, even though they might not even be aware of him.