Carlen Galleries, Inc.

Robert Carlen (1906-1990) worked as a secretary and attended evening classes at the Graphic Sketch Club in Philadelphia right after graduating from high school. He studied painting full-time at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts during the academic year 1928/29, and from 1929-1936 he continued to study painting in the evenings while employed at a brokerage firm.

Since he wanted to be associated with the art world and needed to earn a living, Carlen decided to establish an art gallery that would show the works of young artists. In 1937, he opened in Carlen Galleries in his home at 323 South 16th Street, Philadelphia; the galleries operated in the same location for the remainder of Carlen's life. In its earliest years, Carlen Galleries housed exhibitions of the Associated American Artists' Group and featured prints by Wanda Gag, Käthe Kollwitz, Louis Lozowick, Lynd Ward, and other print makers.

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