The Works of Nicolas Carone and Thomas Hart Benton at Surovek Gallery

Nicolas Carone (1917-2010) was not just a great painter and sculptor, he was also a great teacher and advocate for fellow artists.

 

Carone was born on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the oldest of seven children. His parents were Italian immigrants.

 

He began drawing when he was just four years old. When he was 11, his mother enrolled him in the Leonardo da Vinci Art School in Manhattan.

 

 

Carone was one of the early New York Abstract Expressionists. He hung out at the Cedar Tavern in Manhattan with Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline and other artists and writers who shared ideas and supported each others works. (Jackson Pollock was eventually banned from the Tavern for tearing the bathroom door off its hinges and hurling it across the room at Franz Kline.)

 

In 1953, Carone got a call from Pollock, who was living in East Hampton with Lee Krasner. Pollock was living a reclusive lifestyle at the time, but had great affection for Carone. Pollock told Carone about a nearby house for sale. Carone bought the house. Pollock helped Carone turn the old chicken coop into a studio.

 

Carone also maintained a residence in New York. He taught at Yale, Columbia, Brandeis, Cornell, Cooper Union, the Skowhegan School and was one of the founding faculty member of the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, where he taught for 25 years.

 

Nicolas Carone's work is part of the permanent collection the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and other major venues.

 

 

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Thomas Hart Benton (1939-2023) also had a close relationship with Jackson Pollock (1912-1956). Pollock was 18-years-old when he enrolled in Benton’s class at the Art Students League.

 

Though they had very different styles (Benton was dismissive of Pollock’s abstract work, calling them “absurdities”) their personal bond was strong.

Pollock often called Benton for moral support and Benton gave it.

 

 

Benton surrounded himself with family and friends. Every year he did a painting for his daughter, Jessie (1939-2023), as a birthday present. Each painting included a number of objects that coincided with her age. Sailboats on the Pond, 1948, available at Surovek Gallery, continued that tradition.

 

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Please contact us if you would like more information about the works of Nicolas Carone and Thomas Hart Benton available at Surovek Gallery.

 

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January 9, 2026