Norman Carton (1908-1980)

Norman Carton was born in the Ukraine, eventually immigrating to the U.S. in 1922 and settling in Philadelphia, where he attended the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art. In the 1930s, he received a scholarship to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA).

Between 1939 and 1942, the Works Project Administration (WPA) employed Carton as a muralist. During World War II, Carton was a naval structural designer and draftsman at the Cramps Shipbuilding Corporation. Here, he began to create semi-abstract and non-objective sculpture with metal.

After the war, Carton co-founded a fabric design plant in Philadelphia, creating original patterns for interiors and fashion. He was commissioned by clients such as Lord & Taylor, Nina Ricci, and Gimbels. Publications such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Interiors featured his designs. Some of these designs are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1949, he sold his interest in the plant to pursue painting full-time.

Carton had his first solo exhibition in 1949 at the Philadelphia Alliance, while also teaching classes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1952, he had solo exhibitions at the Sorbonne, Galerie d’Art, and Gallery Rene Breteau, and was part of many group shows in Paris salons including Les Surindependants, Salon d’Automne, and Realities Nouvelles.

When Carton returned to the U.S. from France in 1953, he settled in New York City where he worked in the company of the leading artists of the day. He appeared in numerous group shows including the 1955-1956 “Exhibit of Contemporary American Painting” at the Whitney. This exhibition included such notable artists as Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Mitchell, James Brooks, Grace Hartigan, Franz Kline, Georgia O’Keefe, and Adolph Gottlieb.

Carton received a great deal of acclaim between the mid-1950s and the 1970s, having solo exhibitions at such prominent galleries as Martha Jackson Gallery, Staempfli Gallery, and Tirca Karlis Gallery, as well as a series of group exhibitions at the Whitney, Corcoran, Dallas Museum of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Dayton Museum of Art, and Chrysler Museum. In all, Carton participated in more than 135 group and 20 solo exhibitions.

Carton also was an educator, joining the faculty at the New School for Social Research in New York City, and lecturing at the Pratt Institute, Whitney, and Chrysler Museums of Art.  Toward the end of his life, Carton taught at Long Island University.

Carton is widely represented in private and public collections including the Whitney Museum of Art, Smithsonian Museum of Art, Musee d´Art Moderne, Albright-Knox Museum, Yale University Museum of Art, Yoshihara Museum, and many others around the world.

Norman Carton died in February of 1980.

Source: Quogue Gallery