† Sam Middleton
(American, 1927-2015)
"Untitled", 1983
mixed media on paper
signed and dated lower right; together with a Certificate of Authenticity from artist's estate.
Unframed.
20-1/4" x 30-1/4"
A native New Yorker, Middleton was an abstract expressionist who preferred working in mixed media and collage. His sophisticated compositions underscore the relationship between line, color and form and were, by his own admission, inspired by the classical and jazz music he heard as a young child. An associate and friend of artists such as Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline, Middletown struggled artistically because of his race. His time in the Merchant Marine during World War II exposed the young man to a world and culture outside of the United States. After the war, he returned briefly to New York.

In 1956 he was awarded a scholarship to the Institute Allende in Mexico, and upon completion of his studies he travelled across Europe, one of a contingent of expatriate African American artists. Middleton eventually settled in Holland, where he was an instructor at the Royal Academy of Arts in Hertogenbosch (now the Academy of Art and Design St. Joost). While he visited the United States to exhibit, most significantly he was included in the seminal 1962 40 Artists Under 40 at the Whitney Museum, he refused to live there permanently.

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