![]() At one point, he turns a corner and practically shouts, “It’s Balthus!” after spotting a favorite dog in a piece titled Gypsy Caravan. Middleman moves through the gallery like he’s navigating a receiving line, past the portraits, landscapes, still lifes, watercolors, and a selection of graphic work that includes lithographs and a woodcut. “All these people are close friends, people I know.” “It’s a lot of family in my paintings,” says Middleman. The 80-year-old artist appears genuinely moved by these encounters and the images and stories they conjure. He then spots more friends, Uncle Sid-”my favorite uncle, the first one to buy my paintings ” Bow Davis, a former colleague at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where Middleman has taught since 1961 renowned painter Grace Hartigan, another MICA friend his wife, Ruth his three sons: Ben, Nate, and Raphael Carole Jean Bertsch, “a great spirit” and Gloria, a night guard at MICA. ![]() “That’s the first portrait I ever did of him,” adds Middleman, a warm smile spreading across his face. But the room is otherwise empty friend Al Engelman is framed, larger than life on the wall. “Look, it’s Al!” he exclaims, taking leave of Young and sounding as if he just spotted a dear friend, which he has. His surprise quickly gives way to recognition. Middleman’s eyebrows rise over the frames of his glasses, and his eyes twinkle as he takes in the scope of the show, which features 80 of his best pieces and remains up until the end of August. Seeing UMUC’s retrospective of his work, Raoul Middleman’s Romantic Expressionism: Honoring 55 Years of Artistic Excellence, for the very first time renders him speechless, though just momentarily. ![]() ![]() Raoul Middleman steps into the University of Maryland University College’s art gallery, starts chatting up curator Brian Young, and, looking around, stops talking mid-sentence. ![]()
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