Nicolas Carone (b. 1917, New York, NY, d. 2010, Hudson, NY) belonged to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionist artists. He studied at the Art Students League; at the The National Academy of Design under Leon Kroll; with Hans Hofmann; and at the American Academy in Rome. In 1941 he won the Prix de Rome and in 1949 a Fulbright Fellowship. The time he spent in Italy after World War II brought him into personal contact with important Italian painters, particularly Giorgio Morandi, and had a lasting impact on his work.
He was a good friend of Jackson Pollock. Led by Pollock, who moved to the Springs section of East Hampton in 1945 with Lee Krasner, Carone and his family bought a house on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton as their full-time residence. They lived in proximinity, and they shared an interest in using psychic energy as a working method and source of pictorial construction.
Between his time New York City and on the East End of Long Island, Carone exchanged ideas with peers that influenced his body of work. Carone’s preoccupation with shadows and negative space endowed his paintings with the kind of visual ambiguity that was highly appreciated during the 1950s. His work was included in the legendary 9th Street Art Exhibition in 1951. Along with other first generation Abstract Expressionists, Carone also showed his work at the Stable Gallery.