Sam Middleton (American, 1927-2015), Magic Circle (1978) / Lake View with Vessels (Two Works)

The first: Magic Circle, lithograph in colors, 1978, pencil signed, dated, and numbered 83/100; the second: Lake View with Vessels, 1980, pencil signed, dated, and numbered 4/35 lower margin; both unframed.


Sheet size 20 x 25 3/4 in. (the first), 19 3/4 x 25 1/2 in. (the second)

Sam Middleton left his native Harlem in New York City to travel the world in the merchant marine. Still a wanderer in mid-1950s, he was gaining recognition abroad as a serious and talented visual artist. Like many American blacks before him, Middleton found some comfort circulating in societies less racially sensitive than the United States. As a result, he became an expatriate and built his career while living in Amsterdam. Middleton has received international critical acclaim for over fifty years. In the United States his works are exhibited in New York's Whitney Museum, at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

The first with scattered pale foxing throughout; hinging tape around perimeter. The second in good condition; an overall bright clean sheet with some faint staining and light creases at left edge.