As of the 1970s Jack Goldstein became popular for his intellectual paintings, as well as for his media-, conceptual- and performance art.
Jack Goldstein was born in Montreal in 1945. He began studying at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1966, in 1970 Jack Goldstein transferred to the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia (until 1972).
The profound cultural upheavals of the post war era had decisive impact on Jack Goldstein's art. He felt that man was alienated by an environment dominated by technology and mass media. In the sense of Appropriation Art, Jack Goldstein rejected the idea of originality in art. He adopted the images that surrounded him, similar to the approach of Pop Art. Additionally, Minimal Art and Conceptual Art influenced Jack Goldstein's ideas.
Initially Jack Goldstein was mostly active as painter, at the end of the 1960s he made objects in a post-minimalist manner. In these objects Jack Goldstein illustrates the (disturbed) balance between the constant and the inconstant in a symbolic manner.
These thoughts can also be observed in his performances from the 1970s. Over the years they became highly aesthetic, theater-like shows. On top Jack Goldstein was occupied with photography and film; his films from the second half of the 1970s gained particular fame. Another work complex worthwhile mentioning are the records that he made between 1976 and 1984, they contain sounds of terrible occurrences. The record "The Six-Minute Drown" from 1977 carries the sound of death by drowning.
At the end of the 1970s Jack Goldstein turned to painting again and was predominantly occupied with the Airbrush technique. The basis of his works are images already in existence: photographs, computer prints, microscope- and telescope views. Jack Goldstein consistently pursued this path, taking his art close to Neo-Geo.
In 1991 Jack Goldstein, whose works are in possession of, among others, the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain in Geneva, turned his back on art. In 2003 the artist hung himself.