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Amy Goldin (February 20, 1926 – April 2, 1978) was an American
art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...
who worked from 1965 until 1978. In those thirteen years, she published almost 200 pieces, from single paragraph reviews of current exhibitions, catalog essays, and book reviews. She covered topics that were unconventional at the time:
Folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...
,
African-American art African-American art is known as a broad term describing visual art created by African Americans. The range of art they have created, and are continuing to create, over more than two centuries is as varied as the artists themselves. Some have dr ...
, craft, decoration,
graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...
and
Islamic art Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslims, Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across ...
. Her writing appeared regularly in ''Arts'', ''
ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...
'', ''
Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...
'', ''Art Journal'', ''New American Review'', ''International Journal for Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', and most frequently in '' Art in America'', where she was a contributing editor.


Early life and education

Amy Genevieve Mendelson was born in
Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
on February 20, 1926. Her parents, Harry and Jeanette Mendelson, immigrated from
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
shortly before her birth. Following studies at
Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...
, Detroit, (1943–45) and the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
(1945–47), Amy moved to
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in 1948 and set up a painting studio on East 56th Street. She became a student at the
Art Students' League The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study fu ...
in 1948–49, attended
Black Mountain College Black Mountain College was a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was founded in 1933 by John Andrew Rice, Theodore Dreier, and several others. The coll ...
near
Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populous city in Western North Carolina a ...
,
North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
in the Summer and then studied with
Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...
in New York from 1950 to 1952.


Painting career

After studying
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
at the University of Chicago, Goldin devoted herself to a career as a painter. One of the few dated examples of her work was a 1960 cover and series of drawings for ''Trobar'', an independent poetry journal. During the early 1960s, her painting style evolved from expressionism to geometric, hard-edge abstraction.
Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...
was a strong influence. In a review of a post-humous exhibition of her paintings in 1978, Peter Frank commented: "Goldin's spunky little Hard Edge works are her most original, but she was a skilled and-not surprisingly-highly intelligent painter before that." In 1965, an exhibition of her hard edge paintings was mounted at Brata Gallery, an artists' cooperative gallery located on 10th Street. This exhibition received a cursory review in ''Arts Magazine'' in the very same issue that Goldin first started publishing her reviews of other artists' exhibitions. After 1965, Goldin continued making work, but she was never satisfied with her studio practice. Hereafter she focused her energies-and became known for-her reviews and critical essays.


Criticism and legacy

As she began writing criticism in 1965, her friendships in particular with the
Deep Image Deep image is a term coined by U.S. poets Jerome Rothenberg and Robert Kelly in the second issue of the magazine ''Trobar'' in 1961. They used the term to describe poetry written by Diane Wakoski, Clayton Eshleman, and themselves. In creating ...
group of poets, particularly Robert Kelly,
Jerome Rothenberg Jerome Rothenberg (December 11, 1931 – April 21, 2024) was an American poet, translator and anthologist, noted for his work in the fields of ethnopoetics and performance poetry. Rothenberg co-founded the method of ethnopoetics with Dennis T ...
,
David Antin David Abraham Antin (February 1, 1932 – October 11, 2016) was an American poet, art critic, performance artist, and university professor. Education and early career Antin was born in New York City in 1932. After graduating from Brooklyn Techni ...
and George Economou, provided a sophisticated playing field and a ready audience for her early criticism. Many facets of her existing interests aligned: her fascination with historical and contemporary art, her study of philosophy and sociology, her argumentative nature, her empathy with paint and painters. Over the next year she completed more than 100 short reviews for ''Arts Magazine''. Longer, thought provoking pieces soon became her forte. She loved to chew on an idea, particularly one that had not received much attention, read what others might have written, refute their positions, and then assert her own. She is known for her original, unorthodox criticism; her early career as a painter gave her a unique viewpoint that was strongly sympathetic to artists rather than the critical establishment. After writing about George Sugarman's work, they became devoted friends, correspondents and intellectual sparring partners. Of his work, Goldin wrote: "Sugarman believes that if a piece of sculpture feels like a thing, even a beautiful thing, it's a failure. He wants a more energetic relationship between the work and the space it creates, for the sake of vivid response. Consequently, he believes that the relationship between one part of the work and another should not seem overtly inevitable and logical, but open and full of possibilities." In 1972, Goldin received a National Endowment Critic's Grant. She commuted to
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
to take courses from noted Islamicist,
Oleg Grabar Oleg Grabar (November 3, 1929 – January 8, 2011) was a French-born art historian and archeologist, who spent most of his career in the United States, as a leading figure in the field of Islamic art and architecture in the Western academ ...
. Here she found an intellectual basis and a world of information on an art form for which the term decoration is in no way a pejorative. Tunisian artist and writer Emna Zghal notes that Goldin was unusually forward-thinking in her treatment of Islamic art. According to Zghal, Goldin largely avoided the
Orientalism In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...
common to her contemporary art critics and historians. ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' critic Christopher Knight describes Goldin's 1974 essay "The Esthetic Ghetto: Some Thoughts about Public Art" as "the single best consideration of its thorny subject that I have read." According to this essay, a piece would typically be considered "public art" if-because of its size and location-it reaches a large audience and it addresses a matter of social importance. Goldin, however, defines a third qualification: that the art demands a moral response from the public, thus rendering them participants in a public discourse. She claims that public art is today an impossibility because "in public parks and buildings, anything that clearly proclaims its Art-nature is identified with Management." Today's society is too cynical, too suspicious of power to be engaged by work that is presented in the context of public art. She is also recognized for first providing a theoretical framework for the
Pattern and Decoration A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated li ...
Movement, which was largely dismissed by contemporary critics. In the 1975 essay "Patterns, Grids, and Painting" she describes the function and value of pattern. She writes, "the enjoyment of patterns and grids, so often linked to religion, magic, and states of being not-quite-here, requires an indifference to self-assertion uncongenial to most Westerners." She similarly affirms decoration in her 1975 exploration of Matisse's late cut-outs, asserting that they are the culmination of his life's work: "Matisse leaves your mind alone. The experience he provides is sensuous and emotional, and intelligence impinges only when you resolutely invoke it to discover the causes of such order and delight. The experience of decoration is typically celebrant and content-less." In their widely anthologized 1978 essay
Art Hysterical Notions of Progress and Culture
" Pattern and Decoration artists
Joyce Kozloff Joyce Kozloff (born December 14, 1942) is an American artist known for her paintings, murals, and public art installations. She was one of the original members of the Pattern and Decoration movement and an early artist in the 1970s feminist art mo ...
and Valerie Jaudon explained how they thought sexist and racist assumptions underlaid Western art history discourse. They reasserted the value of ornamentation and aesthetic beauty - qualities assigned to the feminine sphere. The end of this essay states, "To Amy Goldin whose ideas and encouragement made this piece possible." She was the 1977 winner of the College Art Association's Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism. Other winners from that period include
Rosalind Krauss Rosalind Epstein Krauss (born November 30, 1941) is an American art critic, art theorist and a professor at Columbia University in New York City. Krauss is known for her scholarship in 20th-century painting, sculpture and photography. As a criti ...
, Lucy R. Lippard, and
Linda Nochlin Linda Nochlin (''née'' Weinberg; January 30, 1931 – October 29, 2017) was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art hi ...
.http://www.collegeart.org/awards/matherpast>


Death and legacy

She died of cancer on April 2, 1978, after choosing not to pursue an aggressive treatment. In 2011, a collection of her writings was published as "Amy Goldin: Art in a Hairshirt" edited by her friend and former student
Robert Kushner Robert Kushner (; born 1949, Pasadena, CA) is an American contemporary painter who is known especially for his involvement in Pattern and Decoration. He has been called "a founder" of that artistic movement. In addition to painting, Kushner create ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldin, Amy 1926 births 1978 deaths 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers American art critics American people of Russian-Jewish descent American women critics American women journalists American women non-fiction writers Jewish American journalists Jewish American non-fiction writers