Jon Carsman

Following an AIDS diagnosis, Carsman died by suicide in 1987.

Carsman’s final body of work consisted of lush, floral infused paintings, watercolors, and prints. The Wilkes University catalogue described those works and their origins, “A visit around 1980 to Impressionist, Claude Monet's adopted home at Giverny in France inspired [Carsman’s] final major group of paintings. An exhibition of this work traveled to Reading, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma City, and Little Rock, concluding at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio in September 1984.”

In a 1973 article about Carsman in The New York Times, John Canaday wrote, “Jon Carsman's paintings…stir a curious double recall of past masters, being remindful at once of Charles Burchfield…. Here are small‐townscapes with anonymous middle‐aged buildings illuminated in the strong lights and lengthy shadows of late sunshine…. But all tonal gradations have been eliminated, so that the scenes become a kind of patchwork, or marquetry, in flat color areas of descriptive shape. …What appears, for a moment, to be a simple reduction from photographic nature is in fact the result of subtle calculation.”

Of his early mature work produced in New York City, the Wilkes University retrospective exhibition catalogue recounts, “From his studio in lower Manhattan [Carsman] completed a series of views of New York City rooftops in the early 1970s, followed by a critically successful exhibition of Harvey's Lake works, then a series of small-town roadways and frame houses in Bucks County and along the Delaware River, later returning to a favorite theme of woodland views. While [Carsman] painted from photographs, his aim was not simply to recreate the scene: “”I want to give you a feel of what it is like to be there when I was.”” Indeed, one commentator found [Carsman’s] work an “interesting synthesis of photographic, art historical and personal resources.” These "personal resources" included what has been described as a haunting quality in [Carsman's] work, reminiscent, perhaps, of late-night walks with friends returning home from the Kingston Theater, tranquil summer days with his family at Harvey's Lake, and, in later years, the lush floral surrounds during excursions to the Hamptons, Long Island.”

Following Carsman's graduation from NYU, he was introduced to David Herbert who was a native of Carsman's home region and the American Art director of the Graham Gallery, one of New York's most prestigious galleries. Carsman's work was featured in solo exhibitions and included in group exhibitions at Graham from 1969 to 1974. Later Carsman transferred his representation to the Fischbach Gallery, and finally to the Andrew Crispo Gallery. He also had periodic representation by and solo exhibitions at ACA Galleries, and Hammer Galleries.

Carsman graduated from Kingston High School. In 1962 he relocated briefly to Detroit, where he attended Wayne State University. He transferred to Wilkes University in 1963, and ultimately earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art Education there in 1966. He relocated to New York City and earned an Master of Arts degree in Art Education in 1967 from New York University.

Jon Carsman (December 1944 – 1987) was an American painter, draughtsman, and printmaker.

Jon Carman was born in December 1944 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to Jack and Loretta Carsman. By age eight, Carsman's parents approached Niccolo Cortiglia (1893–1982), a local artist and art instructor to provide lessons for their prodigious son. Cortiglia described the young Carsman as having, “golden fingers.”