christa assad

One of KCAI’s beloved former painting and drawing professors, Lester Goldman, was featured in a mind-boggling retrospective exhibition here in Kansas City last month. A staggering amount of works on paper and paintings are still held on display in an unleased warehouse space on at 1619 Walnut Street downtown. Goldman, now deceased, was prolific during his months off between teaching semesters at KCAI - and apparently used every spare moment during the semester to paint and create works on everything from canvas to brown grocery bags! My good friend Sam Harvey of Aspen, CO, came to KC to snatch up a masterpiece for himself. He and Kathrin Goldman, Lester’s wife and keeper of this grand estate of artworks, lifted drawing after drawing from one stack to another, while a group of us art-whore-voyeurs peered over their shoulders…   Occasionally I dragged myself away from the huddle to view the bright, abstract paintings on the walls around us. The entire space reminded me of Pee Wee’s playhouse - oversized, neon-green plastic spheres clustered in one area, tubular squiggles of some unidentifiable material in another - it was a virtual playground for the eyes! I looked at these two paintings the longest…