Press release

JACK GOLDSTEIN
Exhibition from 3 February to 28 April 2002
co-curated by Yves Aupetitallot and Lionel Bovier, in collaboration with Fareed Armaly.
For the opening, Two Fencers, performance at 7pm

Le Magasin is presenting the first major retrospective in a decade of work by Canadian artist Jack Goldstein (Montreal, 1945), with an important selection of works spanning some thirty years and representing every aspect of his artistic output. The exhibition may travel in Europe and the U.S.A.

Starting in 1971, Jack Goldstein built up a protean body of work that includes sculpture, performance, film, photography, recordings, paintings and texts. Although linked with the Californian post-minimalist and post-conceptual scene (John Baldessari, Bruce Nauman), then, in the late 1970s with critical appropriationism (Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, etc.) as well as with certain painters (David Salle, Thomas Lawson and Tony Brauntuch) and with simulationism (Peter Halley, Ross Bleckner, Ashley Bickerton), his art nevertheless continues to defy categorisation.

Drawing in equal measure on Minimalism and Pop, Goldstein’s career offers a vantagepoint for reassessing the ideological and aesthetic issues of the 1970s and ’80s. Right from his earliest films and performances, Goldstein manifested an interest in systems of control and technology (understood here as a means of production and as an ideological construct) with regard to both his modes of production and the content of his projects. Retreating from “author” status in favour of the “producer” role, Goldstein has produced filmic and painted images that present the viewer with a “screen” of spectacular effects, ranging from the spectacle of nature to that of war or natural or manmade disasters. The theme of death is a constant in these recordings and representations, echoing the staging of Goldstein’s own disappearance as an artist, which can be observed at every stage of his work.

THE EXHIBITION opens with the 1975 film MGM, a looped sampling of the movie studio’s famous roaring lion, but coloured red by the artist. This piece introduces what is a comprehensive presentation of Goldstein’s films, many of which have been specially restored for the show. Spread through several different rooms, they reflect the main characteristics of Goldstein’s work, and his transformation from “artist” to “Hollywoodian producer.” They play on the fundamental realities of a kind of communication that produces a type of (hyper)reality, presented by metaphorical images whose conception and presentation is theatrical and which have a psychological effect, drawing on the full complexity of our visual experience.

His first publicly known works date from 1969-1970 and can be said to reflect the so-called “post-minimalist” aesthetic. Some of these pieces have been recreated for this exhibition, including a sheet of glass laid out on top of a bed of nailswith the sharp, pointed parts raised upwards, and two slabs of cement “sandwiching” some cotton. These two sculptures both draw our attention to the physical properties of the materials used, and say something about the way we experience them.

These first sculptures are followed by a series of performances from 1971 to 1985 and the
16 mm films which he also began making in 1971, the last of which he left unfinished in 1983.
Being by their very nature ephemeral, the performances are not very strongly represented in this show, except, in a late portfolio published in 2001, in a few rare documents and in two installations-cum-performances. One of the latter, Burning Window (1977), is recreated in the second room. It features a red-painted wall with a window in the same colour, behind whose red plexiglass pane viewers can see the flickering aura of electric candles, creating the illusion of flames, or even a fire. This piece, involving the viewer’s active perception of the whole, plays games with our visual experience, with the uncertain border between reality and cinematographic illusion.

From 1976 to 1984 Goldstein produced vinyl discs, mainly 45 rpms, carefully working their sleeves and colours. These explore the same kind of territory as the films and performances, and some of them take up or develop the themes of earlier pieces or pieces made concurrently in different media. These themes are and can be developed in different media, superimposing or crossing over their specific modes of production and vocabularies. The 1979 Sound Performance is visible in the small, penultimate room. Under the blue ceiling, four loudspeakers in the corners send out and intermingle the sounds of a train and an aeroplane – in other words, two “sound images” that call on our imagination and memory and at the same time disturb our perception of a theatricalised space with sound. The Planets, a series of records from 1984, and the 1985 performance Records, which uses five discs, accompany paintings about the planets or recording natural phenomena from popular science books.

Goldstein’s use of painting begins in 1980 and, through to the mid-’90s, replaces just about every other medium. Works from the main series of paintings are presented in three of the gallery rooms. The subjects “appropriate” familiar images of war, disaster and natural phenomena. They are made in what can be called a “Warholian” mode, with the artist as producer delegating production of the work.

Since the mid ’90s, Goldstein has been busy with a writing project, a part of which is on view in the last exhibition room.

EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
PAINTINGS

Untitled, 1979
oil and enamel on masonite
183 x 122 cm
courtesy Collection Brian D. Butler, Los Angeles

Untitled, 1980
acrylic on canvas
244 x 152 x 4 cm
courtesy collection privée, Suisse

Untitled, 1980
acrylic on canvas
244 x 152 x 4 cm
courtesy Elisabeth Ziegler, Genève

Untitled, 1980
diptych and acrylic on canvas
127 x168 cm
courtesy Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner, Berlin

Untitled, 1982
acrylic on canvas
245 x 150 cm
courtesy Raum aktueller Kunst, Martin Janda, Wien

Untitled, 1982
acrylic on canvas
239 x 182 cm
courtesy Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner, Berlin

Untitled, 1982
acrylic on canvas
244 x 155 cm
courtesy FRAC Rhône-Alpes, Villeurbanne

Untitled, 1982
acrylic on canvas
245 x 306 cm
courtesy Sammlung Klüser, München

Untitled, 1983
acrylic on canvas
213 x 367 cm
courtesy Collection of B.Z.+ Michael Schwartz,
New York

Untitled, 1983
acrylic on canvas
3 horizontal panels, 81 x 107 x 3 cm each
courtesy Deskey Associates, Inc., Cincinnati

Untitled, 1983/4
acrylic on canvas
245 x 245 x 5 cm
courtesy Galerie Benamou, Paris

M.P. n° 122, 1984
acrylic on canvas
244 x 244 cm
courtesy Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati

Burning City, 1984
acrylic on canvas
234,5 x 152 cm
courtesy Städtische Galerie Erlangen

Untitled, 1985
acrylic on canvas
102 x 154 cm
courtesy Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner, Berlin

Untitled, 1985
acrylic on canvas
234 x 234 cm
courtesy Collection of B.Z.+ Michael Schwartz,
New York

Untitled, 1985
acrylic on canvas
245 x 305 x 5 cm
courtesy Galerie Benamou, Paris

Untitled, 1989
acrylic on canvas
183 x 213 x 15 cm
courtesy Sandra Simpson, Toronto

Untitled, 1990
acrylic on canvas
244x 305 x 15 cm
courtesy Sandra Simpson, Toronto

Untitled, 1990
acrylic on canvas
245 x 230 x 15,5 cm
courtesy Galerie Kienzle & Gmeiner, Berlin

Untitled, 1990
acrylic on paper
157 x 104 x 7,5 cm
courtesy Galerie Benamou, Paris

MOVIES

All films courtesy of: Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Köln.

A Nail,1971
16 mm, color, sound, 4' 30''
In close-up, from a fixed camera position, a nail is seen being hammered into the floor. The silhouette of the artist's face moves towards the nail from above; slowly he pulls it out with his mouth pressed tight.

There,1971
16 mm, b/w, sound, 20’
There or, as previously titled, Roomdefinition, was filmed in 1971 in Jack Goldstein's studio in downtown Los Angeles, where he produced most of his interior film projects until 1973, at which time he was already working with film professionals. With a static camera, There shows a detail of the brightly lit, empty studio. Suddenly the light goes out. In the complete darkness of the room, in the black frame of the film, footsteps are heard off screen. The light comes on again and the slowly panning camera follows the sound of the footsteps. As soon as a person is seen in the picture (Jack Goldstein himself), the light instantly goes out again. This is repeated several times.

Focus,1972
16 mm, b/w, silent, 4’ 30''
A static shot of a blurred, fuzzy almost abstract picture comes into focus very slowly, gradually revealing more and more contours until, finally, the picture is in complete focus and we see the portrait of a man.

A Glass of Milk,1972
16 mm,b/w, sound, 4' 42''
A black table, with a full glass of milk on it, is pounded with a fist at regular intervals, hard enough to make the milk spill but without upsetting the glass. White milk is spattered on the black tabletop. The repetitive pounding of the fist becomes an abstract, rhythmical soundtrack.

Grapejuice,1972
16 mm, b/w, sound, 8' 54'’
Four plain drinking glasses, all the same size, are lined up in a row. The first one is filled with dark grape juice. Bit by bit, Jack Goldstein sucks the liquid out of the first glass with a straw and pours it into the second one. He repeats the procedure from second to third and third to fourth, until the last glass is filled.

Rocking Chair,1972
16 mm, b/w, sound, 4’
Rocking Chair shows Jack Goldstein on a rocking chair in his studio. Suddenly he gets up and walks out of frame. In the second half of the film, the rocking chair is seen loudly rocking to a halt.

Some Plates,1972
16 mm, color, sound, 3’ 36''
The static camera films a stack of plates. Off screen, at regular intervals, the sound of stamping or heavy steps is heard. As the sound draws closer, a shadow gradually emerges on the floor indicating a person jumping in place. The jumping figure moves closer to the stack of plates. The movement continues until the stack collapses

A Spotlight,1972
16 mm, b/w, sound, 8’
A spotlight follows Jack Goldstein around in a room and he keeps trying to escape the light. The speed of the movements in space makes the action look like a mixture between athletic training and the menace of imprisonment or surveillance.

Volleyball,1972
16 mm,b/w, sound, 7' 42''
A volleyball is lying on the ground. A person comes and kicks the ball against a wall that is out of frame. The ball then rolls back into the static picture. This is repeated several times.

Hampstead Heath,1973
16 mm, color, sound, 8' 54'’
The first take shows part of a park in London's Hampstead Heath, where Jack Goldstein spent some time in 1973. We first see a symmetrical composition with a tree in the middle, accompanied by the sounds of nature. The same man walks into the picture alternately from the left and from the right. Every time he appears, the camera pans in the opposite direction eliminating him from view. This occurs several times at varying distances.

Fingerprints,1973
16 mm, b/w, silent, 13’
Seen in close-up, the artist's index finger makes black fingerprints on a white surface. After each fingerprint has been made, the camera explores the surface to find another empty area. This is repeated until there is no white left.

Here, 1973
16 mm, b/w, sound, 10' 42'’
“Here” initially shows a black picture of a completely dark room. Steps and a voice calling “here” are heard off screen. Then a detonation sound is heard. This is repeated a few times. After a while the light is turned on, revealing scattered chunks of rock on the floor of the room. According to Jack Goldstein, the rocks mark the spots where the person may have stood when calling “here”. But the quantity of rocks distributed in the room does not indicate a clear trail that might have been followed.

Jack, 1973
16 mm, color, sound, 11' 24'’
The film starts with a close-up of a face screaming the name “Jack”. The mobile camera moves farther away at regular intervals, while the person continues shouting “Jack”, also at relatively regular intervals. The distance between figure and camera increases until the figure gradually disappears in the vastness of the sparse Mojave Desert near Los Angeles and its cries are no longer heard.

A Reading, 1973
16 mm, color, sound, 7' 48'’
A static shot of a page of a manuscript is accompanied by Jack Goldstein's voice reading a theoretical treatise. The increased speed with which he is reading seems strange until one realizes that the top of the page is on fire. It seems to be a race against time between the burning of the page and the reading of the text.

Time, 1973
16 mm, color, sound, 2' 42'’
The cover of Time Magazine with the headline “Fair or Foul / President...” and a thumb pointing up is accompanied by the characteristic ticking of an alarm clock. Suddenly the alarm goes off. The magazine begins to vibrate and gradually slithers aside, revealing the alarm clock underneath.

Portrait of Père Tanguy , 1973
16 mm, color, sound, 4’
In a static shot, Vincent van Gogh's famous Portrait of Père Tanguy has been placed under a sheet of tracing paper and appears blurred and indistinct. A hand traces the contours of the portrait with a black pencil. Then the tracing paper is removed and the original portrait becomes visible.

A Ballet Shoe, 1975
16 mm, color, silent, 19’’
A close-up of a ballerina's foot in a blocked shoe with silk ribbons around the ankle is seen en pointe in great tension. Two hands begin to untie the ribbons, the foot relaxes, and returns to its original, flat position.

The Chair, 1975
16 mm, color, silent, 5’
The film shows a tarred bankers chair against a dark, almost black background. Artificially dyed feathers in strong colors begin fluttering down from the top of the picture frame, one by one, some of which get stuck on the tarred chair. “Goldstein tars and feathers a bankers chair. This, along with 'riding out of town on a rail’ and lynching, was an early form of vigilance justice in colonial America. It also suggests how racism pervades film history. D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, the first film to use continuity cutting, was a eulogy to the Ku Klux Klan. In the first 'talkie,’ the Jazz singer Al Jolson performed in blackface.”—John Miller, “A Trailer for the Future,” in Jack Goldstein, Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Köln, 2002 (forthcoming).

The Knife, 1975
16 mm, color, silent, 4’
In the middle of the picture against a blue background, a piece of cutlery, an ordinary silver knife, is seen with lights in different colors reflected in its surface. The regularity and slowness of these reflections make it look as if the blade of the knife were immersed in liquids.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1975
16 mm, color, sound, 2’
The intercut sequence of footage of the famous MGM logo shows the lion roaring over and over again in his cartouche with the lettering “Ars Gratia Artis”. The background is colored bright red unlike the original.

Shane, 1975
16 mm, color, sound, 3’
Shane shows a close-up of a German shepherd that keeps barking in response to a signal given from behind the camera. According to Jack Goldstein, the dog is a trained film animal. “The longstanding rumor, which turns out to be not true, was that Goldstein used a Hollywood makeup artist to give the dog its brilliant if slightly nefarious gleam. In fact, the film was tinted gold to produce the effect.”—Meg Cranston, “Haunted by the Ghost,” artext, Los Angeles, 2001.

Some Butterflies, 1975
16 mm, color, silent, 30’’
The film shows a hand with an artificial butterfly attached to each of the fingertips. After a short period without motion, the fingers begin to move as if to generate the effect of fluttering butterflies.

White Dove, 1975
16 mm, color, sound, 20’’
This film shows another trained film animal a white dove seen in close-up in the center of the picture against a turquoise background. Two hands reach into the picture from either side and gradually move towards the center in prayer position to form a triangular roof over the dove. When the tips of the fingers meet, the dove slides down and out of the picture.

Bone China, 1976
16 mm, color, sound, 2' 30'’
Bone China is an animation film of a bird, drawn like a cartoon and flying around the rim of a porcelain china plate filmed head-on. The initially 'normal' speed of the fluttering bird suddenly accelerates. After a while, the bird begins flying in the opposite direction. This film was produced in a professional film-animation studio in Hollywood. The company, Spungbuggy, also produced famous cartoons like Yogi Bear.

The Jump, 1978
16 mm, color, silent, 26'’
The Jump shows a rotoscopic rendition of footage of athletic high divers. Each figure, shown singly, consists of flaming red lights that seem to be flickering aimlessly against a purple-black background. In the first three sequences, the diver jumps up, rotates, goes into tuck position, and disappears when the somersault is completed. The last sequence is a static shot with several sparkling colors before it disappears in the darkness of the filmic image.

RECORDS

All records courtesy of: Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Köln and Städtische Galerie, Erlangen.

1976
A suite of nine:
Suite of nine 45 rpm 7-inch records with sound effects :

-The Burning Forest
45 rpm, red and white vinyl.
-The Dying Wind
45 rpm, clear vinyl.
-A Faster Run
45 rpm, orange vinyl.
-Three Felled Trees
45 rpm, green vinyl.
-A German Shepherd
45 rpm, red vinyl.
-The Lost Ocean Liner
45 rpm, black vinyl.
-A Swim Against the Tide
45 rpm, blue vinyl.
-The Tornado
45 rpm, purple vinyl.
-Two Wrestling Cats
45 rpm, yellow vinyl.

1977
The Murder
33 1/3 LP, black vinyl with red label on side two (music).
The Quivering Earth
33 1/3 LP, white vinyl with an uncropped edge around the record that is painted silver (sound effects).
The Six-Minute Drown
45 rpm, black vinyl with blue and black label (sound effects).
Two Fencers
33 1/3 LP, white vinyl with black label on side two (music).
The Unknown Dimension
33 1/3 LP, black vinyl with silver label on side two (music).

1979
A suite of five records with colored labels in place of titles:
-Black Label with Blue Moon, Flip side: Orange Label.
-Black Label with Gold Moon, Flip side: Black Label with Gold Moon.
-Black Label with 1/4 White Moon, Flip side: Black Label with 1/4 White Moon.
-Blue Label, Flip side: Green Label.
-White Label, Flip side: Silver Label.

1984
The Planets, a suite of 6 records
All records are 10-inch 33 1/3 rpmblack vinyl with black labels. Side 1 and Side 2 repeat or describe each other. The entire suite is 36 minutes.

OTHER PIECES

Untitled, 1969-1971/2002
Wood
h. : 270 cm
Courtesy of the artist

Untitled, 1969-1971/2002
Paper, string, tacks and clothespins
dimensions variables
Courtesy of the artist

Untitled, 1969-1971/2002
Cotton and cement slabs
91 x 61 cm
Courtesy of the artist

Untitled, 1969-1971/2002
Plywood, nails and glass
274 cm2
Courtesy of the artist

Burning Window, 1977/2002
Installation
dimensions variables
Courtesy of the artist

Sound Performance, 1979/2002
Installation
dimensions variables
Courtesy l’artiste/of the artist

Totems: Selected Writings 1988-1990, 1990
Boxed book
Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York

Performance Portfolio, 2001
Edition, silkscreened text and color
photographs mounted on paper;
9 panels, 91 x 61 cm each
courtesy of the artist and 1301 PE, Los Angeles

Selected Writings by Jack Goldstein, 2002
Extracts from a work in progress
4 books
courtesy of the artist