Sam Middleton, an American by birth, has been living and working in the Netherlands since the early 1960s. First in Amsterdam, but later in the North Holland town of Schagen. Middleton has long been dedicated to the technique of collage, gaining national and international fame with his work. It has been exhibited numerous times in renowned Dutch and foreign art museums. Music, especially jazz, is the main leitmotif of Sam Middleton. Described by art critic Frans Duister as ‘Music for the eyes’, Middleton can be considered the first modern Afro-American artist in the Low Countries. The echoes of great jazz musicians like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and other childhood idols play through his work in an incomparable way, like a broad undercurrent that determines the ‘sound’ of his oeuvre and fertilizes the textures and rhythms of his work. Middleton incorporates scores and photographs, referencing this favorite theme, in his collages. These collages possess a well-balanced aesthetic and rhythmic harmony, achieved through a subtly applied division of space, often with a transparently painted background, and the addition of a wide variety of graphic elements. www-ftn-books.com has several Middleton titles available.
