Medium/Discipline: Mixed Media, Painting, Works on Paper
Maryland Affiliation: Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: abstract
Style/Period: Abstract
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: Gladys Goldstein, born Gladys V. Hack, moved with her family to Baltimore before she was age two, was educated in art from the age of nine through high school at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and had her first art exhibition at age 12. Though she began training in Teacher Education at Johns Hopkins University, painter and MICA faculty member Henry Roben advised her to study art in New York. She attended the Art Students League there for a year, in addition to three ensuing summers, while her husband, Edward H. Goldstein, was acquiring his doctorate at Columbia University. The Goldsteins eventually moved to Baltimore where Gladys lives and works today.
After the birth of their son, William N. Goldstein, in 1943, Goldstein did portrait painting and creative painting in her home studio until 1951 when she began studying with Hobson Pittman at Pennsylvania State University. Pittman convinced her to focus on creative painting, and the University gave her a studio for use during two summers. In 1954, the University purchased from Goldstein a painting entitled "White Church," which remains part of its permanent collection.
Although her work is abstract, Goldstein's primary source of inspiration is nature. She creates the impression of light emanating from within her paintings and captures the essence, rather than the appearance, of the natural world. The subject matter and themes she depicts or that inspire her compositions range from cityscapes, landscapes, rivers, the western plains, dancing, storms, the sea, plants and the seasons. In an artistic career spanning six decades, Goldstein has worked with oils, acrylics, watercolor, drawing, collage, mixed media and cast/handmade paper. She frequently worked the paints over the canvas with a palette knife. Goldstein was also the first American artist to use the Mexican printmaking technique called mixographia to create and reproduce textured prints.
Goldstein's manner of painting has been described as being, "like looking through layers of filmy colored veils with one color moving into the next." (Quoted in Robert G. Breen "Perspective in Space," Baltimore Sun, n. d.) The artist spoke about the "horizontal perspective" she achieves using layers, spatial relationships and light effects in her work: "This [horizontal perspective] does not violate the picture plane but simply creates an illusion of movement by virtue of the depth created horizontally in flat layers; each layer retaining its own identity, yet uniting itself with the whole." (Breen)
In 1957 on the occasion of an exhibition of Goldstein's work at his New York gallery, Albert Duveen, also an art critic, wrote, "These are the expressions of a keen observer, a highly organized and skillful artist, whose knowledge of color relationship, form and mass, aided by a sensitive painting texture, guides her unerringly in the creation of meaningful abstractions. She is fully aware of the pitfalls of a sentimental, romantic approach. Her paintings have a masculine solidity, rare indeed for such a sensitive personality." (cited in Baltimore Museum of Art vertical file) Gladys Goldstein's artistic contemporary and fellow abstract artist, Keith Martin, also was a profound influence on her work, as was Henry Roben and Hobson Pittman.
The University of Maryland University College hung an exhibition in 2004, Capturing the Essence: The Art of Gladys Goldstein, which celebrated the opening of the permanent Gladys Goldstein Gallery in the UMUC Inn and Conference Center. This gallery is the university's first permanent display of contemporary abstract art.
Goldstein was an art instructor at the Forest Park Evening Center in Baltimore, Maryland (1955-1960), at the Metropolitan School of Art in the late 1950s, at the Maryland Institute College of Art (1960-1964), the Jewish Community Center and the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (1964-1975). She was an active member of Artists' Equity, the Painters' Seminar and the art group of the National League of American Penwomen, who awarded Goldstein "Best in Show" in a biennial exhibition held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Goldstein's work is a part of Maryland collections as listed farther below, and of non-Maryland collections that immediately follow: Blair Collection; Levi Collection, New York; Meyerhoff Collection; Alban Barkley Collection; Collections of Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania; Edward J. Gallagher Collection; University of Arizona; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Carnegie Institute; Columbia Broadcasting Co.
Education/Training: Maryland Institute College of Art; Art Students League, New York; Columbia University; Pennsylvania State University
Taught By: Henry Roben, MICA; Hobson Pittman, Pennsylvania State University
Art-related Employment: painter; art instructor; Co-Chairman, Painting & Sculpture, Maryland Arts Festival; Art Committee- Mayor's Ball.
Selected References: Gladys Goldstein, The Baltimore Museum of Art Vertical File (VFA).
Capturing the Essence: The Art of Gladys Goldstein, University of Maryland University College: www.umuc.edu/art/goldstein/index.html.
Martenet, J. Blankfard. Unpublished notes, 1956. Baltimore Museum of Art Vertical File.
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: J. Blankfard Martenet Collection, The Baltimore Museum of Art; University of Maryland University College; Goucher College
Maryland Institutions Holding Biographical Material: Gladys Goldstein, The Baltimore Museum of Art Vertical File (VFA)
Single-Artist Exhibitions: partial list:
1960-1970 --
The Baltimore Museum of Art
Duveen Graham Galleries, New York, 1957.
Galerie Philadelphie, Paris, France
McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College), Westminster, Maryland.
Goucher College, Towson, Maryland.
Washington and Lee University, Virginia.
Little Gallery, Philadelphia.
Johns Hopkins Medical School.
I.F.A. Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1966, 1970, 1973.
College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
Sutton Place Gallery, Maryland.
Center Stage, Maryland.
Hoffberger Gallery, Maryland.
Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, 1968.
York College, Pennsylvania.
Newark Gallery, Delaware.
WCBM Gallery.
1970-1980 --
Essex Community College.
Jewish Community College.
5 Stalls Gallery
I.F.A. Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1977.
Richter Gallery, Weisbaden, Germany (drawings).
20th Century Gallery, Williamsburg, Virginia.
Villa Julie College, Baltimore.
1980-present --:
Loyola College (Baltimore, Maryland) "Gladys Goldstein. Recent Paintings," October 1989.
Katzenstein Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 1990.
Art Showcase Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland, 1991.
Gallery 44, Ellicott City, 1990.
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: partial list:
Contemporary Fine Arts Exhibition, celebrating the American Jewish Tercentenary, 1955.
1960-1970 --
Peale Museum, Baltimore, Maryland.
Cleveland Museum of Art.
Morgan State College, Baltimore, Maryland.
The Baltimore Museum of Art.
Goucher College, Towson, Maryland.
Academy of Arts, Easton, Maryland.
1970-1980 --
Towson State College.
College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
Academy of Arts, Easton, Maryland.
Pennsylvania Historical Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Erlanger, Germany.
Awards: partial list:
Purchase Award, Pennsylvania State University.
Bertram-Berney Memorial Award, The Baltimore Museum of Art.
Popular Vote Award, The Baltimore Museum of Art.
Best in Show Award, Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.
Berkeley T. Rulonh-Miller Award, The Baltimore Museum of Art.
T.V. Interviews - "Adler Invites"
Caedmom Album Covers (Drawings): "Plays by Yeats", "Last of the Mohicans"
1st Award - 25th Anniversary of Israel, J.C.C.
1st Award - "CHAYIM" - Life.
Maryland Art Today - 3rd Award - H.K. & Co.
Painting on cover of brochure "World Urban Crisis," University of Arizona and Institute of International Education.
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