Jack Goldstein


 

"Jack Goldstein"
Contemporary, London, February 2002, p.12

A relatively neglected figure from New York's post-Pop late 60s and 70s scene, Jack Goldstein is the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Magasin in Grenoble. Bringing together a selection of thirty recently restored film pieces, as well as sound works, performance documentation, paintings and related material, the exhibition is a homage to an artist whose work is highly regarded but not often seen. One of Goldstein's favourite tactics is the exploration of the different connotations resulting from a single image which has been freed from its original context. In the 1975 film The Knife, for example, the artist subjects the grainy image to different light and colour changes, imbuing the knife with constantly shifting meanings, ranging from the menacing to the glisteningly seductive. In Metro Goldwyn Mayer, a film from the same year, the renowned lion of the Hollywood film studio's logo roars repeatedly over two minutes, announcing the beginning of a film which never comes. His paintings similarly focus on a single motif which takes centre stage, constantly teasing us with possible interpretations. An artist of the same generation as Acconci, Nauman and Jonas, Goldstein's seductive reflexivity definitely merits a closer look.

Sotiris Kyriacou