Sam Middleton (1927-2015) - Summer sailing

Artist: Sam Middleton (1928-2015)
Title: summer sailing
Year: 1979
Technique: color screen printing on heavy paper
Print run: 2/50
Sheet size: 50 x 65 cm (H x W)
Dimensions of image/production: 45 x 60 cm
Signature: signed and numbered in pencil.
Condition: good condition / a bit off in color / yellowish



American/Dutch artist Sam Middleton was born in 1927 in New York. Sam is self-taught as an artist. He settled in Amsterdam in 1963, but he lived for many years in the North Holland town of Schagen. Middleton has long been intensely devoted to collage techniques. He also employs screen printing and gouache. Middleton has earned national and international fame with his artworks. His work has been exhibited many times in renowned Dutch and foreign art museums. Music, especially jazz, is the main leitmotif of Sam Middleton. In his collages he incorporates scores and photographs that refer to this favorite theme. The collages have a balanced aesthetic and rhythmic equilibrium. This balance arises from a subtly applied spatial division with, in many cases, a transparently painted background and the addition of a wide variety of graphic elements: pencil lines and dots. In addition to music, the North Holland polder landscape is an important source of inspiration for Middleton. According to art critic Frans Duister, Sam Middleton can be regarded as the first modern Afro-American artist in the Low Countries.