Jack Goldstein
1945–2003
Jack Goldstein, a conceptual artist who came to prominence as a member of the Pictures Generation in the 1970s, worked in sculpture, performance, painting, film, and sound recording. His early short films feature close-up shots of simple actions such as hands untying a ballerina’s pointe shoe or colored light moving over the reflective surface of a knife blade. Goldstein also appropriated “loaded images” from the culture and then worked to “reduc[e] the symbolism” associated with them. In Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, for example, he altered aspects of the famous studio mascot Leo the Lion, animating it by looping the sound and image. The resulting footage takes on new meaning but, as Goldstein explained, “You’re still left with some old meaning . . . in the back of your mind.”
Goldstein presents Leo within his familiar circular frame of unspooling celluloid, but excises the MGM name and trademark text. The motto Ars Gratia Artis (Art for Art’s Sake) remains legible against the added red backdrop, however, signaling the icon’s transformation from corporate logo into art object. Instead of maintaining the standard two roars used to announce the coming feature presentation, Goldstein inserts footage of a third roar that plays forward and then backward—an action repeated multiple times for the length of the film. Goldstein’s interventions require the viewer to give sustained attention to and actively consider the commercial introduction that typically registers as a fleeting image before the “real” film begins.
Introduction
Jack Goldstein (September 27, 1945 – March 14, 2003) was a Canadian born, California and New York-based performance and conceptual artist turned post-conceptual painter in the 1980s.
Wikidata identifier
Q1677042
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed April 14, 2025.
Country of birth
Canada
Roles
Artist, cinematographer, installation artist, painter, performance artist, photographer, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500022521
Names
Jack Goldstein
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 14, 2025.
