Sam Middleton was born in 1927 in New York City and grew up in Harlem at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1944, he enlisted in the Merchant Marines at age 17 and returned to New York in the 1950s. There he befriended other New York School artists such as Franz Kline, Jackson Pollack, and Robert Motherwell.
Middleton, who was largely self-taught, often saw jazz masters like Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker play live in the 1950s, and was inspired to translate the spontaneity of their music to works on paper. He incorporated music sheets, newspapers, tickets, magazines, and cards he’d collected into his collages, famously attaching them with Elmer’s glue.
In 1955, Middleton made his first artistic trip outside of New York. Following the lead of other African American artists who were in search of a more open-minded atmosphere, Middleton settled briefly in Mexico City. It was in Mexico that his style shifted from social realism to abstract expressionism. By 1959, he resolved to leave the US permanently. He spent time traveling to Spain, Sweden, and Denmark, and eventually settled in the Netherlands in the 1960s. He formed many close friendships during his time in Europe, spending time with artists and intellectuals such as Herbert Gentry and James Baldwin. Middleton passed away in the Netherlands in 2015.
Middleton’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Fisk University Galleries, the Hampton University Museum, and the Howard University Museum, as well as in private collections all around the world.
PFF137 - "Love Day," Mixed media on paper, 1963, 39 x 34 in.
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