Clarence Carter was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, and received recognition for his art talent early. From 1923 to 1927, he enrolled in the Cleveland School of Art and earned key patronage from William Millikin, the director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, who arranged for Carter to study in Italy with Hans Hofmann in 1927. When he returned to the United States and taught at the Cleveland Museum of Art from 1929 to 1937. Carter was then asked to be the director of the Federal Art Project for Northeastern Ohio, a position he held from until he went on to teach at the Carnegie Institute from 1938 to 1944. He also served as guest instructor at various institutions including the Minneapolis School of Art (1949), Lehigh University (1954), Ohio University (1955), Atlanta Art institute (1957), Lafayette College (1961), and the University of Iowa (1970). Clarence Carter's work can be found in many public institutions, including: the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; the Corcoran Gallery of Art, DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.