Sam Middleton was a mixed-media artist from New York, NY. He travelled all over the world with the US Merchant Marine, lived in Mexico and Sweden and eventually settled down in the Netherlands where he "was part of the considerable contingency of expatriate African American artists". Settling in Holland in 1961, he established himself as one of The Netherlands' premier artists. His work is part of the Whitney Museum permanent collection, which included him in its 1962 exhibition 40 Artists Under 40 and was included in the 2015 inaugural exhibition for the museum's new building on the High Line. Middleton was born in New York City and grew up in Harlem, NY. Known for his personal style, Middleton liked to use abstract expressionism in his work, basing his color, lines, and compositions around sound and harmony. Middleton specialized in working with collage.
Biography
As a young boy growing up in Harlem, Middleton often visited the nearby Savoy Ballroom and music – jazz and classical – became important inspirations for his artistic endeavors. Working at the Savoy, Middleton designed costumes, and painted record and book covers. He was a painter, aquarellist, and lithographer and was specialized in collages. After growing up in Harlem and after having lived in Mexico, Japan, Spain and Sweden, he settled in the Netherlands in 1961. He lived in Amsterdam for many years but, fascinated by the landscape, settled in Oterleek in North Holland in 1973. Music, and the landscape of North Holland, create the climate of his abstract expressionist work. Middleton taught at Atelier '63 in Haarlem and the Royal Academy of Art in ‘s Hertogenbosch. Sam has been married twice, had three sons, one daughter and seven grandchildren.
Out Chorus, 1960, part of the Whitney Museum collection Cymbals, 1962 Hymn to Democracy, 1962 Social Realism, 1964 Everyone's Music Book, 1975 Summer Wind, 1976 Black Music, 1993 Solo, 1993 Table TopStill Life, 1996 Monk Lost in Music, 2001
