Nicolas Carone

Nicolas Carone (1917–2010) was a member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists whose work was deeply influenced by Surrealism, poetry, and Jungian psychology. He believed that every moment and experience could provide inspiration, famously stating: “if you look at the sidewalks on a rainy day, study all the marks, you see great paintings.”

Born on the Lower East Side and raised in Hoboken, Carone began studying art at age eleven at the Leonardo da Vinci School at St. Mark’s Church. He continued his education at the National Academy of Design under Leon Kroll, assisting with the WPA Worcester War Memorial Mural from 1939–1941, then at the Art Students League of New York, Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts, and the Rome Academy of Fine Arts. The 1940s marked early recognition, as Carone won the Rome Prize in 1941 and a Fulbright Fellowship in 1949, which allowed him to study in Italy.

By this time, Carone was a close friend of Jackson Pollock and, like Pollock, established a permanent studio in The Springs on Long Island. He exhibited at the Ninth Street Exhibition in 1951 and at the Stable Gallery, and was represented by the Anita Shapolsky Gallery and Staempfli Gallery. Carone also taught at Yale, Columbia, Brandeis, Cornell, Cooper Union, the School of Visual Arts, and Skowhegan, and later helped found the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture and the International School of Art in Montecastello, Italy.

A revived interest in his work followed a 2005 show of his drawings at Lohin Geduld Gallery. Known for his fluency in abstraction, Carone juxtaposed jagged, viscous forms with delicate lines and curvilinear patterns. Of the lyricism present in his abstractions, the artist stated in a 2006 interview:

“Don’t be fooled by technique or paint quality… Fuck it! It’s the imagery that goes on. It’s metaphoric and it’s poetry in a jazz sense. It’s symbolic and it’s on another dimension. It’s not an order like Picasso but it’s another dimension, the rhythm of mass.”

- Nicolas Carone

His work remains celebrated for its lyrical abstraction and masterful brushwork.