Norman Carton

Norman Carton (January 7, 1908 – February 14, 1980) was an American artist and educator known for abstract expressionist art.

Norman Carton was born in the Dnieper Ukraine territory of the Russian Empire in 1908.

He was born in the Ukraine region of Imperial Russia and moved to the United States in 1922 where he spent most of his adult life.

A classically trained portrait and landscape artist, Carton also worked as a drafter, newspaper illustrator, muralist, theater set designer, photographer, and fabric designer and spent most of his mature life as an art educator.

Carton showed in and continues to be shown in many solo and group exhibitions.

His work is included in numerous museums and private collections throughout the world.

Escaping the turbulence of civil war massacres, he settled in Philadelphia in 1922 after years of constant flight.

While attending the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, Carton worked as a newspaper artist for the Philadelphia Record from 1928 to 1930 in the company of other illustrator/artists who had founded the Ashcan School, the beginnings of modern American art.

From 1930 to 1935, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Henry McCarter, who was a pupil of Toulouse-Lautrec, Puvis de Chavanne, and Thomas Eakins.

Arthur Carles, especially with his sense of color, and the architect John Harbison also provided tutelage and inspiration.

Carton was awarded the Cresson Traveling Scholarship in 1934 which allowed him to travel through Europe and study in Paris.

There he expanded his artistic horizons with influences stemming from Matisse, Picasso, Soutine, and Kandinsky.

While at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Carton was also awarded the Toppan Prize for figure painting as well as the Thouron Composition Prize.

He received numerous commissions as a portrait artist, social realist, sculptor, and theatrical stage designer as well as academic scholarships.

During this time, Carton worked as a scenery designer at Sparks Scenic Studios, a drafter at the Philadelphia Enameling Works, and a fine art lithographer.

Following his time at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Carton studied at the Barnes Foundation from 1935 to 1936 where he was mentored by John Dewey, Bertrand Russell, and again Carles as well as had daily access to Albert C. Barnes and his art collection.

From 1939 to 1942, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project employed Carton as a muralist and easel artist.

The WPA commissioned Carton to paint major murals at the Helen Fleischer Vocational School for Girls in Philadelphia, the Officers’ Club at Camp Meade Army Base in Maryland, and in the city of Hidalgo, Mexico.

Throughout the 1940s, Carton exhibited and won prizes for his semi-abstract Expressionist and Surrealist paintings at the Phillips, Corcoran, Carnegie Institute among other renowned institutions.

He socialized with and was inspired by Émile Gaugin and Fernand Léger.

He was a regular participant in exhibitions at the Pyramid Club, Philadelphia's leading African-American social club.

During World War II, Carton was a naval structural designer and draftsman at the Cramps Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey.

Here, he created non-objective sculpture with metal and collaborated with architects George Howe and Paul Philippe Cret.

After the war, Carton co-founded a fabric design plant in Philadelphia.

He produced hand-printed fabrics for interiors and fashion that were featured in Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and Women's Wear Daily.

Original fabric designs were commissioned by notable clients including Lord & Taylor, Gimbels, and Nina Ricci.

Some of these designs are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Carton traded his partnership in the fabric design company in 1949 to focus full-time on painting.

Carton had his first solo exhibition in 1949 at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

This show was followed closely by solo exhibitions at the Laurel Gallery (New York City) and Dubin Gallery (Philadelphia).

At this time, his exhibited work was abstract impressionist.

In addition to painting, he taught classes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and was the Founder and first President of the Philadelphia chapter of the Artists Union and later Artist's Equity Association.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the organization of the National Museums of France commissioned Carton to travel to Europe, mainly France, in 1950 for a color photography study of continental masterpieces.

He was granted access to study the restoration of the Mona Lisa and was one of the very few to be given permission to remove the painting from its frame.

During his three-year stay in Paris, he had solo exhibits at La Sorbonne and Gallery Rene Breteau and was in 15 group shows in Paris salons including Les Surindependants, Salon d’Automne, Realities Nouvelles, and Musee d’Art Juif.

The Cercle Paul Valery twice sponsored Carton to present lectures at the Sorbonne.

He conducted seminars at the Louvre for the Cercle Esthetique Internationale and taught classes in and directed stage and costume design for the Theatre de Recherche at the Paris Opera.

He studied with Jacques Villon and Léger again.

Among his Paris artist colleagues were Chana Orloff, Earl Kerkam, Sam Francis, Claire Falkenstein, Lawrence Calcagno, Norman Bluhm, and Al Held.

When Carton returned to the United States in 1953, he settled in New York City where he worked in the company of the leading artists of the day with whom he appeared in a number of group shows including the Whitney Museum of American Art's 1955–1956 "Exhibit of Contemporary American Painting."