In the course of his brief artistic career, John Altoon made an explosive impression on the Los Angeles art community of the 1950s and ’60s, in part because of his volatile personality. Altoon was a member of the Ferus Gallery scene, alongside Robert Irwin, Ed Kienholz, and Ed Ruscha. He produced drawings, paintings, and prints of overt satires, personal nightmares, and improbable sexual situations. In fact, Altoon frequently used his dreams and fantasies as subjects, influenced by his encounter with Surrealism in his travels through Europe. His renderings had a characteristically misty or ghostly quality, which Altoon achieved by using an airbrush to apply color.
FROM THE SHOW AT LACMA:
John Altoon is the first major retrospective devoted to this little-known yet important artist whose brief but significant career unfolded in southern California from the 1950s until his untimely death in 1969 at age 43. The exhibition includes approximately 70 paintings and drawings from public and private collections across the United States.
Trained as a commercial illustrator as well as a fine artist, Altoon developed both an abstract vocabulary influenced by Abstract Expressionism and a figurative style (often erotically charged and with socio-political content) that reflected his commercial background. He also developed a hybrid style combining abstraction with figuration. A post-modernist before his time, Altoon had a facility with line, color, and subject matter that resonated with his peers and continues to resonate with artists today.
FROM MICHAL KOHN GALLERY EXHIBITION:
John Altoon’s boundary pushing abstract and figurative works on paper allow the viewer to explore the incredible relationship Altoon had with line, color and idiosyncratic subject matter. The immediacy felt in his work drew the attention of curator Walter Hopps, who was interested not only in Altoon’s raw gestural quality but in the anti-conformist and political subtexts as well. Altoon deftly assimilated his background as an illustrator with his “…keen awareness of the European and East Coast avant-garde—especially the automatism and free association integral to surrealism and action painting…”1 . Pablo Picasso’s overtly sexual works were known to have had great influence on Altoon when he lived and worked in Spain. Altoon’s nervous line, erotically charged imagery, and fantastically satirical depictions come to full fruition on exhibit together.
Extremely rare paintings from the estate will be on view. Few paintings remain in the Estate as Altoon destroyed many of his own earlier works. Later, towards the end of his short-lived career, Altoon reached new inspiration and had just begun working on a new body of work. A true painter’s painter, Altoon’s visceral and energetically organic forms reflect an exceptionally physical and direct art practice. Altoon is regarded as one the most talented painters from the Ferus Gallery’s abstract painters group. His style continues to resonate and influence artists today.
John Altoon’s significant career blossomed in Los Angeles, California until his untimely death in 1969 at age 43. A seminal artist in both American and West Coast art history, John Altoon was an influential member of Wallace Berman’s infamous Semina circle and the Ferus Gallery’s artists. This exhibition comes at a time during a resurgence and prolific rise of the West Coast artists and movement with Bruce Conner’s retrospective opening at William Turner Gallery on his 90th birthday, a recent solo show at LACMA as well as previous major retrospectives at MOCA Los Angeles; and following LACMA’s major retrospective of Altoon’s work in 2014, illuminating an inspiring career that continues to reverberate today.
