Jack Goldstein

Jack Goldstein
Paintings: 1980 - 1985

29 April - 27 May 2005

The exhibition Jack Goldstein Paintings: 1980-1985 opens at Metro Pictures on Friday, April 29th. This exhibition presents a timely review of Goldstein's remarkable contribution to the concepts of appropriation, commercial media appearance, and mechanical processes that have subsequently become staples of current art practice.

Goldstein began producing paintings in the late 70s after exploring the use of isolated appropriated imagery in his early film, performance and photographic work. The large-scale, pristine surface and crisp imagery of his paintings reflect the artist's interest in the unique impact of the picture, possible only in the medium of painting. His concern was pointedly not with the evidence of the act of painting, but with the impact of images.

Jack Goldstein (1945-2003), whose work was included in Douglas Crimp's influential Pictures exhibition at Artists Space (1977), was among the group of artists who first exhibited at Metro Pictures beginning in 1980. The present exhibition includes a selection of those paintings dated 1980 to 1985 that are closely associated with the artist's work of the period. Goldstein's paintings, records, and films have been exhibited recently in museums and galleries throughout Europe and America. His writings and a new film were posthumously exhibited at the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Venues for his one-person exhibitions include the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2002); Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg (2002); Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, Grenoble (2002); Galerie Daniel Buchholz, Cologne (2000). Goldstein had five exhibitions at Metro Pictures between 1980 and 1985. This sixth exhibition, 20 years later, is a review of those earlier exhibitions.