Edward Goldman

Stripes in Motion

The artist created this painting so that it may be hung vertically or horizontally.

Provenance: Estate of the Artist
Illustrated: Edward Goldman: American Regionalism to Op Art, Stanley Cuba

About the Artist
Edward Goldman is an anomaly in comparison to the typical artist's story. With little formal training but with single-minded dedication he pursued and perfected his craft, painting in his home basement studio in the evenings after work and on the weekends. A private man, he chose not to market his paintings during his lifetime. Edward was born in Lowell Massachusetts into a lawyer's family. From his mother he inherited a creative impulse that steered him in a different direction. While studying French at Harvard University he joined the Navy Reserves and in 1945 was recruited to attend the US Navy Japanese/Oriental Language School housed at the University of Colorado Boulder. It was there he met his future wife and remained in Colorado. Goldman began working at Central Electric in Denver (the largest electrical supply wholesale company in the Rocky Mountain Region) eventually becoming the CEO. As a phenomenally accomplished business man he was an equally accomplished artists.

In the early 1960's Goldman briefly studied with artist Bill Longley however he was largely self taught. As an avid reader, historian and traveler he voraciously surrounded himself with art. His interest in history led him to paint some of Denver's historic structures in the early 1970s when many of them faced demolition in record numbers. He did not set up an easel on location, but instead on quiet Sunday mornings sketched the buildings he later painted in his basement studio. In the late 1960s, influenced by the decade's Op Art movement, he began experimenting with non-representational color studies in orange, yellow and blue. Goldman, along with Vance Kirkland, is one of only two artists known to have been working in the Op Art style in Denver during this time.

In 1974, he began painting large abstract canvases that were devoid of any referential subject matter. His Op Art paintings are vibrantly colored works that play with linear compositions, spatial allusions and geometric grids. His optical renditions are intellectual, stunning and colorful.

During his lifetime Goldman's creative output was known only to his immediate family and to a small group of friends and admirers. He never became part of the Denver art establishment and was content with never seeking its recognition. Engaged in a full-time business career, he was conscious of the "Sunday painter" stigma. Chagrined when his art was categorized solely as an avocation, he cited George Bernard Shaw's admonition for critics that hung on his office wall at Central Electric: "Critics are to art as pigeons are to statues." He thought that his canvases would find little acceptance in local art exhibits because he had never attended an art school and had only limited formal study. According to his family, he also felt that art should be seen talked about and admired, but not treated as a commercial object to be bought and sold. He painted for his own pleasure and considered the fruits of his creation analogous to his own children. He rarely sold his art, gifting it instead to people who liked it.

©David Cook Galleries, LLC