Sam Golden (May 20, 1915 – March 11, 1997) started his paintmaking career in 1936 at Bocour Artist Colors with his uncle Leonard Bocour. In 1947, he developed

Magna paint Magna is the brand name of an acrylic resin paint, developed by Leonard Bocour and sold by Bocour Artist Colors, Inc. in 1947. It is somewhat different from modern acrylic paint, as it is composed of pigments ground in an acrylic resin brought in ...

, the world's first artist

acrylic paint Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion and plasticizers, silicone oils, defoamers, stabilizers, or metal soaps. Most acrylic paints are water-based, but become water-resistant when dry. Dep ...

. He returned from retirement in 1980 to found Golden Artist Colors Inc. based in

New Berlin, New York New Berlin is a town in Chenango County in central New York, United States. The population was 2,682 at the 2010 census. The town contains the village of New Berlin. The town is at the eastern border of the county and is northeast of Norwich. ...

, with his son Mark Golden.''Just Paint'' Issue 5, March 1998 Sam and Leonard began by producing hand ground oil colors for artists in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

as the New York School of Painters was coming into its own and New York City was becoming the arts center of the world. Artists like

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

Barnett Newman Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American painter. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense ...

and

Morris Louis Morris Louis Bernstein (November 28, 1912 – September 7, 1962), known professionally as Morris Louis, was an American painter. During the 1950s he became one of the earliest exponents of Color Field painting. While living in Washington, D ...

were regular visitors at the Bocour shop on 15th street. They would set up their drawing pads or easels and draw or paint in the tiny shop. It was Sam's work directly with artists and the products he developed in collaboration with these painters that became the inspiration for his entire paint-making career. Sam is credited with the development of the first artist acrylic, the first phthalocyanine artist paints, the first iridescent artist colors, the first stable alizarin color in acrylic, the first stable zinc white in acrylic and the development of water tension breaker. Sam Golden died in upstate New York March 11, 1997.Sam Golden, Paintmaking Pioneer
Sam Golden's eulogy at Golden Artist Colors.

Notes

External links

Golden Artist Colors, Inc. website

Sam & Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts

Sam & Adele Golden Gallery at Golden Artist Colors

Sam Golden, Paintmaking Pioneer and Founder of Golden Artist Colors Passes Away at 82
1915 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American inventors {{US-business-bio-1910s-stub

See also

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