He was born in Ukraine, at the time part of the Russian Empire and moved to the United States in 1922 where he spent most of his adult life.

From 1930 to 1935, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Henry McCarter, who was a pupil of Toulouse-Lautrec, Puvis de Chavanne, and Thomas Eakins.

[1] He received numerous commissions as a portrait artist, social realist, sculptor, and theatrical stage designer as well as academic scholarships.

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.

During World War II, Carton was a naval structural designer and draftsman at the Cramps Shipbuilding Corporation in Camden, New Jersey.

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.

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.

Among his Paris artist colleagues were Chana Orloff, Earl Kerkam, Sam Francis, Claire Falkenstein, Lawrence Calcagno, Norman Bluhm, and Al Held.

"[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.

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.

[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.