|
Galerie Anita Beckers: The Jack Goldstein Connections - 20 Nov 2009 to 30 Jan 2010 Current Exhibition |
||||
|
Jack Goldstein, Untitled (White, Black, Gray)
1991 - 1992, Acrylic on 4 panels, 243 x 243 x 15,24cm signed and dated on verso |
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
The Jack Goldstein Connections Jack Goldstein | Romeo Gr�nfelder | Gregor Hildebrandt Monica Ursina J�ger | Clare Langan | Bj�rn Melhus Opening: Friday, November 20th, at 7 pm Duration: November 20th through January 30th, 2009 The exhibition �The Jack Goldstein Connections� at Galerie Anita Beckers presents paintings by one of the most important and yet unknown artists of the last thirty years, the Canadian-born Jack Goldstein (*1945-2003). Currently, the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt (MMK) presents an extensive retrospective devoted to this artist (October 3rd � January 10th, 2010). The exhibition in the gallery tries to confront Goldstein�s works with those of Romeo Gr�nfelder (*1968), Gregor Hildebrandt (*1974), Monica J�ger (*1974), Clare Langan (*1967) and Bj�rn Melhus (*1966). The show brings into dialogue the work of Jack Goldstein together with that of younger artists exploring what could be thought of as some Jack Goldsteins�s most influential ideas and legacy. In Goldstein�s tradition and somewhere in between seriousness and entertainment, Bj�rn Melhus and Romeo Gr�nfelder use found film and sound footage in their works. Romeo Gr�nfelder�s short film �desi�re�, appropriates an old celluloid film labelled as belonging to the estate of Jack Goldstein. Due to partially missing data, the place, time and author of the film cannot be surely determined leaving us in the dark as to its authorship and production circumstances. With the statement of Jack Goldstein: "I wanted to make a film with a drowning man, but instead I made a record with a drowning man," a trail is left but the mystery of authorship remains unsolved. The sound footage of mainstream movies are the inspiration source for the video works of Bj�rn Melhus. In his film, "Murphy" Melhus uses the sound material from popular American war films, which rhythmically create flickering colour fields. The apparent sound quotation of Marilyn Monroe's voice in "Happy Re-Birth" in connection with the image of the artist as a blue smurf, defines an area of tension that emphasizes the aesthetic characteristics of the medium film. The resulting combination of sound, image and content sets pace with Goldstein's cinematic approach. Gregor Hildebrandt's work, perform the most radical transformation process. In his monochrome works, he mainly uses music or video tapes as a substrate, giving rise to subtle arrangements within the image. However, the captions of the works refer to songs of the Punk and new wave era, in this way triggering a transformation process back to the original material. This strategy of expressing ideas traditionally represented in one specific media into a new unconventional one was especially explored by Goldstein in his record series. Goldstein thought that some of his filmic ideas were better served as recorded coloured vinyl�s with a determined sound and a specific title, resulting in richer and more complex associations to the viewer�s mind. This �transfer� of medium can also be seen in Monica J�ger�s �Half forgotten dreams� (2008), in which apocalyptical visions are engraved into a new and unconventional material that of cathode ray tubes. Her compositions are based on natural phenomena and disasters, and images of war or other based media-transmitted events. Clare Langan�s catastrophic and dramatic landscapes invoke a painterly perception of reality the same way Goldstein�s interest in natural phenomena achieves an intense aesthetic quality. This ultimate idea - the replacement of experience for aesthetics in consequence of technology � was expressed in one of Jack Goldstein�s most famous aphorisms: �Technology does everything for us so that we no longer have to function in terms of experience. We function in terms of esthetics�. Favouring the crossover between film, painting and music �The Jack Goldstein Connections�, brings together a group of artists who despite their different backgrounds and interests seem critically engaged in the reflection on media-transmitted images of Western culture and their spectacular character in consequence of our media technologies. Biographies: Jack Goldstein (*1945, Montreal/ Canada) has 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. During the 1970s, Goldstein divided his time between Los Angeles and New York, eventually becoming one of the linchpins of the Pictures Group, which gained its first recognition at Artist's Space in New York City in the fall of 1977. The first films, dating form the years 1971-73, depict performative situations. Up until 1983 Jack Goldstein produced 34 films, and today they number his most famous work. These works are followed by a series of LP recordings which are not only sound recordings but also objects. He returned to California in the 90's and slowly disappeared from the art world until renewed interest in his work began to happen in 2000. His writings and a new film was included posthumously in the Whitney Biennial Exhibition in March 2004 after his death in 2003 (San Bernadino, California). After many years of being overlooked, Jack Goldstein's work is finally beginning to be recognized for the importance it holds for contemporary artists. His work is included in many of the most important public and private collections of art in the United States. Gregor Hildebrandt, born in Bad Homburg / Germany, studied from 1995 till 1999 at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and from 1999 till 2002 at the Hochschule der K�nste in Berlin. His field of work contains painting, objects and installations. Gregor Hildebrandt lives and work in Berlin. His Videotapes, which are suspended and function like room installations could be seen in 2007 at the Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, in 2008 at the Art 39 Basel �Statement� and this year in Berlin at the Rohkunstbau. Solo Exhibitions in 2009 were shown at the Galerie Wentrup (Berlin) and the Berlinische Galerien as well as the exhibition room of Ursula Werz in T�bingen. His works are collected by the Sammlung Zeitgen�ssische Kunst des Bundes Berlin, among others. Clare Langan (born 1967 in Dublin/IRE) studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and with a Fulbright Scholarship, completed a film workshop at New York University in 1992. Her work was exhibited in the Singapore Biennial, the Lyon Biennale, the Liverpool Biennial and in 2002 she represented Ireland in the 25th Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her films are in a number of international public and private collections including The Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Tony Podesta Private Collection, Washington, and the Hugo and Carla Brown Collection, UK. Born in Kirchheim in 1966, Bj�rn Melhus studied Film and Video at the Braunschweig School of Arts. Since 2003 he is professor for Video at the Kunsthochschule, Kassel / D. Currently living and working in Berlin, his film "Murphy" has just been recently been awarded with the 55. Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen Prize (2009). Recent shows have included a solo presentation at the Amerikan Hastanesi in Istanbul (2009) and at the Denver Art Museum in the USA (2008) among others. He has also been recently featured in the group exhibition �Rules of the Game�, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Barcelona (2009) and �DREI. Das Triptychon in der Moderne� in the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2009) just to name a few. Galerie | Anita Beckers | Frankfurt Frankenallee 74 D-60327 Frankfurt / Main SATELLIT - Ein Raum f�r junge Kunst Technisches Rathaus - Am R�merberg, zwischen Frankfurter Kunstverein & Schirn Frankfurt / Main Tel (0)69-73 9009 67 Fax (0)69-73 9009 68 www.galerie-beckers.de |
||||
re-title.com
International contemporary art
SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS
SIGN UP for ARTIST MEMBERSHIP
SIGN UP for GALLERY MEMBERSHIP
Click on the map to search the directory