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Jack Goldstein, born September 27, 1945 in Montreal, Canada, moved as a boy to Los Angeles, California and attended high school there in the 1960s. He received his training at Chouinard Art Institute and was a member of the inaugural class of California Institute of the Arts, where he worked in post-studio art under John Baldessari, receiving an MFA in 1972.
A performance artist with roots in sculpture, a conceptual artist who made 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, Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Troy Brauntuch and, initially, David Salle, 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 of "selling out," this tactic appropriated the art star mantle that Goldstein's work always had assumed.
As the decade 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 eventually left New York in the early 1990s and returned to California where he lived out the decade as best he could 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 took his own life on March 14, 2003.
Jack Goldstein should be remembered for a certain conceptual/representational approach that helped to shape a generation's artists and beyond, although they might not even be aware if him.
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