Sam Golden (May 20, 1915 – March 11, 1997) started his paintmaking career in 1936 at
Bocour Artist Colors with his uncle
Leonard Bocour Leonard Bocour (March 18, 1910 – September 6, 1993) was an American artist.
Bocour was born in New York City. Around 1933, he formed the New York City based company Bocour Artists Colors. He was the co-developer along with Sam Golden of Ma ...
. 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 int ...
, 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. Depe ...
. He returned from retirement in 1980 to found
Golden Artist Colors
Golden Artist Colors, or simply Golden, is an U.S. manufacturing company that focuses on paints used in fine art, decoration, and crafts. Based in New Berlin, New York, the company produces a line of acrylic paints that includes some recreations ...
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 (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
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. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...
,
Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. 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 o ...
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.C ...
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](_blank)
Sam Golden's eulogy at Golden Artist Colors.
See also
*
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. Depe ...
*
Leonard Bocour Leonard Bocour (March 18, 1910 – September 6, 1993) was an American artist.
Bocour was born in New York City. Around 1933, he formed the New York City based company Bocour Artists Colors. He was the co-developer along with Sam Golden of Ma ...
*
Golden Artist Colors
Golden Artist Colors, or simply Golden, is an U.S. manufacturing company that focuses on paints used in fine art, decoration, and crafts. Based in New Berlin, New York, the company produces a line of acrylic paints that includes some recreations ...
*
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 int ...
*
oil paint
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varn ...
*
paint
Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...
*
watercolor paint
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
Notes
External links
Golden Artist Colors, Inc. websiteSam & Adele Golden Foundation for the ArtsSam & Adele Golden Gallery at Golden Artist ColorsSam 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
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