JACK GOLDSTEIN
Under Water Sea Fantasy
28 June – 18 August, 2018
1301PE is pleased to present its fourth exhibition with the late Jack Goldstein. The show includes Goldstein’s significant film Under Water Sea Fantasy along with nine silkscreened text and color photographs: Portfolio of Performance, and James Welling’s Jack Goldstein’s studio.
A central figure of the “Pictures Generation”, Goldstein’s work included film, performance, writing, text, painting, sound, and sculpture. Under Water Sea Fantasy began production in 1983 and was completed before his untimely death in 2003. His film reveals Goldstein’s acute understanding of the perception of spectacle and the power of image. Using production values influenced by Hollywood studio techniques, he exploits the spectacular effects of visual presence and the interplay of sound and image. Footage of natural phenomena such as underwater life, volcanic eruptions and celestial events is montaged into a flow of appearing and disappearing energies with no clear narrative structure. At once serene and violent, the seductive visual impact of this film is mesmerizing. Underwater Sea Fantasy premiered in the 2004 Whitney Biennial.
Goldstein’s Portfolio of Performance documents and describes in exacting detail nine of his proposed art performances from 1976 - 1985: The Jump, Sound Performance, Two Boxers, Two Fencers, Records, The Murder, Fire/Body/Light, Body Contortionist and Burning Window. These performances are cinematic in nature and parallel his film work from this period. They remove the artist centric nature of performances. The portfolio serves almost as a set of instructions for additional stagings or interpretations of the original performances, essentially rendering the artist unnecessary to the process.
James Welling’s Jack Goldstein’s Studio is a series of images that Welling shot of Goldstein and his studio in February 1977, when they both rented offices at the 506 Pacific Building on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Fifth Street. Goldstein was working in restaurants to finance his film "Bone China” and lived in several offices within the building. Welling’s photographs document Jack’s sparse studio that included: a mattress, hangers, some cigarettes, photographs, 2 x 4’s and his body of work: Auphorisms, that are taped to the wall. Welling says: “For the portrait of Jack I used a very slow film, Polaroid type 55, ASA 25. The viewer can see his cigarette burning down itself as he remains motionless for the 30-second exposure.” Welling’s photographs prove to be significant, as they reveal a timeline of Goldstein’s thought process in imagery and content; photos of scuba divers, astronauts, depictions of natural phenomena, as well as text all already exist in 1977 at the time of Welling’s documentation, and will ultimately emerge in Goldstein’s future paintings.
Jack Goldstein’s (1945 – 2003) major solo and group exhibitions include: Gwangju Biennale, 2014; La Biennale di Venezia, 2011; Whitney Biennial, 1985; documenta 8, 1985 and documenta 7, 1982; The Jewish Museum, New York, 2013; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, 2012; MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, 2009; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2002; Magasin, Centre National d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble, 2002; Künstlerhaus, Stuttgart, 1999; The Power Plant, Toronto, 1991; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, 1988; Städtische Galerie Erlangen, 1985 and The Kitchen, New York, 1977, 1978 and 1980. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, Musee d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York New York, The Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada and The Broad, Los Angeles, California.
James Welling’s major solo exhibitions include: Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent (S.M.A.K), 2017; Art Institute of Chicago, 2014; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland and Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, 2013; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, 2012; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 1998. In 2000, the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio organized a major survey of his work, which traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 1990, the artist's first museum exhibition was presented by Kunsthalle Bern.
For more information please contact Susan Sherrick or Brian Butler 323.938.5822
