Norman Carton

Carton painting a Works Progress Administration mural section of Sojourner Truth, 1940

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,[6] 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. 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[4][1] 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.[4][1][7]

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[8] 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.[9]

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.

Jazz Light, c. 1959, 72" × 50", oil on canvas

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.”[10] This exhibition included such notable artists as Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Mitchell, James Brooks, Grace Hartigan, Franz Kline, Georgia O'Keeffe, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert De Niro Sr., and many others. The Whitney subsequently purchased a Carton.

The mid-1950s to the 1970s was a busy time for Carton during which he received a great deal of recognition. He had solo exhibitions one gallery after another: Martha Jackson,[11][12] Staempfli,[13] Granite and World House in New York City; Tirca Carlis, Provincetown; Gres,[14] Washington D.C.; and Joachim, Chicago. 

Carton's large canvasses traveled in major collections to such venues as the Smithsonian American Art Museum (was SNCFA) and the RISD Museum of Fine Arts with significant works of artists such as Jim Dine, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, Louise Nevelson, and Jackson Pollock. Other group exhibitions included Corcoran, Dallas Museum of Art, Dayton Art Institute, Detroit Institute of Arts, Walker Arts Center, Carnegie, Albright-Knox, and Chrysler Museums.  

Among his NYC artist colleagues were also now Louise Nevelson and John Hultberg who he had helped welcome at the Martha Jackson Gallery. In 1962, with the aid of two other artists, he formed the Dewey Gallery, one of the first New York City galleries owned and operated by artists. He presented his work during the opening exhibition.

During his lifetime, Carton was in at least 150 group exhibits and more than 20 solo shows and continued to receive many PAFA fellowship awards.[1]  He was popularly and critically regarded as possessing a painterly style of superlative action and a unique knowledge as a colorist, Carton ground his own pigments and painted with a brilliant palette. More recently, he exhibited with Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko among other great Abstract Expressionists as well as Picasso and Matisse.[15]

Norman Carton was also an art educator throughout much of his life. Beginning in 1960, Carton worked on the art faculty at the New School where he would remain until his death.[4][1][16] From 1948 to 1949, he taught painting and composition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From 1950 to 1953, he conducted seminars at the Louvre and the Sorbonne while living in Paris. Also while in Paris, Carton taught classes in and directed stage and costume design for the Theatre de Recherche at the Paris Opera. He also gave lectures at the Pratt Institute and the Chrysler Museum of Art as well as the Whitney Museum of American Art. Carton moderated panel discussions between prominent artists and educators and appeared in radio interviews. In 1960 and 1961, he painted at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire as a fellow.[7] Carton also taught for a time at Long Island University.[1]