Background
Altoon was born in Los Angeles, California, United States, on November 5, 1925.
9045 Lincoln Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045, USA
Otis College of Art and Design.
1700 Lida St, Pasadena, CA 91103, USA
Art Center College of Design.
24700 McBean Pkwy, Valencia, CA 91355, USA
California Institute of the Arts.
9045 Lincoln Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045, USA
Otis College of Art and Design.
1700 Lida St, Pasadena, CA 91103, USA
Art Center College of Design.
24700 McBean Pkwy, Valencia, CA 91355, USA
California Institute of the Arts.
Altoon was born in Los Angeles, California, United States, on November 5, 1925.
John Altoon attended the Otis College of Art and Design between 1947 and 1949, the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles from 1947 to 1950, and also the Chouinard Art Institute (now part of the California Institute of the Arts) in 1950.
Altoon began his artistic career as an abstract expressionist, but by the 1960’s the artist turned to figurative painting. These works were characterized by skillful sexual imagery and draftsmanship. They were described as a mish-mash of "vaguely figurative, botanical and biological forms." Altoon’s works were full of with mischievous humor and intellectual rigor. His art was also influenced by his trip to Europe where Altoon lived in Spain for some time. He also served in the American Navy during World War II.
John Altoon was represented by Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles during the late 1950s and early 1960s, along with Robert Irwin, Larry Bell, and Edward Keinholz, or the "Ferus group". In 1961 he moved into a studio in Venice, California. During his Ferus Gallery years, he created the Ocean Park series which depicted an area around Venice and Santa Monica beach towns in California. The series consisted of 18 paintings.
In his late 30s, Altoon was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was often attacked by depression and paranoia, during which he even destroyed some of his own work. In the early 1960s, he became a patient of Dr. Milton Wexler a prominent psychoanalyst, who helped him restore his ability to work. From that time until his death John Altoon had the most productive and stable years of his life.
From 1962 to 1963 the artist produced the Advertising Parodies series and large-scale pastels that examined the figure as represented in the media and pop culture, pulling text and imagery from commercial advertisements. In the year 1965, he worked at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop. It taught a generation of American master printers.
Altoon created his Animal and Cowboys and Indians series between 1966 and 1968, in which the comical and sexually explicit implications typical of his early works "gave way to softer, biomorphic forms that were vaguely sexual and highly fanciful."
John Altoon is remembered for his talent, vitality, and inspiration. He left behind an impressive body of work. In the spring of 1950, he received the Anna Lee Stacey Award for drawing. An exhibition of his work was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, in 1997, curated by Hugh M. Davies and Andrea Hales.
His works are in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
Ocean Park Series 11
Ocean Park Series
Untitled (J 110)
Untitled 14
Untitled (Sunset Series 33 )
Untitled (ABC with Yellow and Green)
Untitled (Sunset Series 32 )
Untitled (ABC 52)
Untitled
Untitled (Kneeling Nude)
Untitled (Drawing on Paper 30)
Untitled (Drawing on Paper 19)
Untitled
Untitled (F-13)
Untitled (CI-WAAMWoman on bar)
Untitled (ABS-074- B&W)
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled (J-191)
Untitled (J-086)
Untitled (F-171)
Untitled (F-39)
Untitled (F-29)
Untitled (ANI-31 Monkey)
Untitled (ANI-28 Monkey)
Untitled (ABS-95A)
Untitled (ABS-109)
Untitled (ABS-81A)
Untitled (J-93)
Untitled (F-14)
About Women Series
Untitled (Clowns)
Quotations:
"I’m not everybody’s cup of tea. But sometimes criticism can be hurtful. Be respectful. I’m a good piano player, I can sing well, I write good songs. If you don’t like it, fair enough. But give me a break."
"I’ve always wanted to smash a guitar over someone’s head. You just can’t do that with a piano."
"I think people should be free to engage in any sexual practices they choose; they should draw the line at goats though."
"And I’m afraid, in this day and age, trust, which I count so, you know, I love loyalty. I love trust."
"As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children. John Adams."
"Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours."
"I never thought of myself as being handsome or good-looking or whatever."
John Altoon was a funny and friendly person. He could charm anyone.
Quotes from others about the person
Irving Blum: "If the [Ferus] gallery was closest in spirit to a single person, that person was John Altoon - dearly loved, defiant, romantic, highly ambitious - and slightly mad."
Silva Bezdikian: "The artistry and expressiveness of John Altoon's works, in both drawings and paintings reveals a passion and energy unlike that of any other artist working in California at that time...They are witty, dark, explosive, passionate, vibrant - all of the elements that made up the character of the artist himself. Looking at this paintings and drawings, one wants to laugh and blush at the same time, as if caught in a moment of voyeurism peeking into the deepest inner reaches of Altoon's troubled soul."
John Altoon was married to the actress Fay Spain from 1959 to 1962. Then he remarried Roberta ("Babs") Lunine in 1966, with whom he lived until his death in 1969.
