[1] 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.
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.
[8] Tunisian artist and writer Emna Zghal notes that Goldin was unusually forward-thinking in her treatment of Islamic art.
[9] Los Angeles Times 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.
"[10][11] 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.
Today's society is too cynical, too suspicious of power to be engaged by work that is presented in the context of public art.
[12] She is also recognized for first providing a theoretical framework for the Pattern and Decoration Movement, which was largely dismissed by contemporary critics.
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.
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.
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.