Mixed-media artist Sam Middleton was one of a group of expatriate African Americans who enjoyed success in Europe in the 1960s. Middleton was born in New York City and grew up in Harlem near the Savoy Ballroom.  This notable venue provided much inspiration for his future collages.  His love of music, classical and jazz, was integral to his life; he was known to carry an unwieldy turntable and a collection of records with him wherever he traveled.   

He joined the Merchant Marines in 1944. Upon his return to New York City in the 1950s, he relocated to Greenwich Village, meeting and befriending a small group of African American artists including Walter Williams, Clifford Jackson, Harvey Cropper, and Herb Gentry - all of whom would expatriate to Europe in the next decade  In the early 1950s, Middleton was part of New York's Cedar Tavern scene, which included his friends Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline.  Kline encouraged Middleton to apply to the John Hay Whitney Foundation and advised him to seek artistic success outside New York.  

Middleton received a scholarship for one year of study at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel; otherwise, he was largely self-taught.  It was there in 1957 that he began experimenting with collage.  His work was shown at the Contemporary Arts Gallery in 1958 and again in 1960.  The Whitney Museum of American Art showcased four of his works in Young America 1960: Thirty American Painters Under 36.

Between 1959 and 1961, Middleton lived in Europe, exhibiting in Spain, Sweden, and Denmark.  Much of his artistic material was gleaned from ephemera he collected as he moved from city to city.  In 1962, he decided to make a home in the Netherlands.  His later work brought the Dutch landscape into his collages.

Middleton remained in the Netherlands for the rest of his life. He showed extensively there and in other locales throughout Europe, but was not forgotten in the States.  In 1970, his work was featured in the exhibition Afro-American Artists Abroad at the Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin. In 1983, the Studio Museum in Harlem presented the exhibition An Ocean Apart: American Artists Abroad, which featured works by Herb Gentry, Cliff Jackson, and Walter Williams.

His work is featured in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Fisk University, Nashville, TN; and the Brooklyn Museum, NY, among others.

Photo: Middleton, Cliff Jackson, and Harvey Cropper in Stockholm, Sweden, 1960; Sam Middleton Estate. Unidentified photographer; © Sam Middleton Estate

Selected exhibitions

40 Artists Under 40, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, 1962

Exhibitions in Netherlands & Paris, 1960s-1970s

Afro-American Artists Abroad, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, 1970

An Ocean Apart: American Artists Abroad, Studio Museum in Harlem, 1983

America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, 2015 (Featured his collage Out Chorus)

Rhythm of Resilience: The Artistry of Sam Middleton, Hammonds House Museum, Atlanta, GA, 2024. ( A retrospective tracing Middleton’s journey from Harlem’s jazz heartbeat to his time in the Dutch landscape.)

Paris Noir, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR, 2025