Jack Goldstein

Jack Goldstein, who was born 1945 in Montreal, Canada, and died 2003 in San Bernadino, California, is one of the most important “artists” artists of the last 30 years. Though he enjoys international appreciation amongst fellow artists and art experts, his oeuvre remains largely unknown to a broader public. Following his training at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (1966-69) and later at the newly founded California Institute of the Arts in Valencia in John Baldessari’s famous “post-studio art” class he worked both in Los Angeles and New York. While studying under Baldessari Goldstein initially worked on minimalist sculptures, but soon turned his attention to performance and film. As the public was excluded from attending his earliest performances they are only documented by descriptions of them and a handful of photographs. The first films, dating from the years 1971-73, depict performative situations and serve to advance the ideas behind his first works. All Goldstein’s films are shot on 16mm material and their composition is inspired more by models from the theater than from the video esthetic that was gradually evolving at that time. Up until 1983 Jack Goldstein produced 34 films, and today they number his most famous works. The films, some of which are very brief (with the shortest lasting a mere 20 seconds) rely on the tools and technology of the commercial film industry. The film topics range from performative stagings via motifs culled from the US movie industry through to short sequences that focus on a single object or movement. He edited the last ten films completed during his lifetime to form a single sequence.