Ed Samuels was born just before World War II started. There were talented artists on both sides of his family there were very talented artists and musicians who attended Pratt and Cooper Union, some of the finest art schools in New York. When the war began they had to drop their artistic careers to help in the war effort and to go to war as well. Ed was six years old when the war ended, his artistic talent was already starting to bloom. “I remember going outside and looking for a piece of plaster or something so I could draw on sidewalks.” His family nurtured his talent by giving him art supplies, watercolor kits, brushes and paints on every gift giving occasion. At the age of sixteen, he started taking private art lessons from a Hungarian refugee artist and became his studio assistant.

 

Ed attended the Art School of Suny, New York and the Boston Museum School where he learned, as he likes to call it, the “bones” of painting. His painting teacher studied with Piet Mondrian, and his sculpture teacher studied with August Rodin.

 

Ed has shown with some of the greats in the gallery business in New York City. His first gallery was the original OK Harris gallery of Ivan Karps in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He has shown with Allan Stone and the legendary Leo Castelli in New York.