New Book Explores Jack Goldstein's CalArts Burial and Formative Years

In his latest publication, Alexander Dumbadze explores the early challenges faced by artist Jack Goldstein in Jack Goldstein: All Day Night Sky, highlighting his influential work from the late 1970s to early 1980s. On June 9, 1972, as part of a project for John Baldessari, Goldstein was interred on the CalArts campus in a wooden box, positioned in a four-foot-deep grave overlooking the 5 Freeway. He remained underground for roughly an hour—less than planned—while connected to a breathing tube and a heartbeat monitor linked to a flashing red light. Some contemporaries believed he misjudged the necessary determination. Later, he recreated this performance at Riko Mizuno Gallery, lying in a makeshift coffin between two chairs. This followed Chris Burden's tarp performance outside the same gallery a week earlier and Burden's five-day confinement in a three-by-three foot locker at UC Irvine the previous year. Known for his analytical mindset and keen awareness of his peers, CalArts classmate James Welling remarked, "Jack's work always looked like someone else's." The book intertwines biography, art theory, and archival research in a non-linear format, addressing the complexity of images and personal experiences, while also chronicling Goldstein's eventual psychological and creative decline. An excerpt focuses on his graduate years at CalArts, where he wrestled with a pivotal art-historical moment that sought to challenge the boundaries of artistic creation and its institutions.