JOHN ALTOON BIOGRAPHY
John Altoon’s artistic presence in the late ‘50s and throughout the ‘60s had a strong influence in developing and promoting the art scene on the West Coast, at a time when New York was the flourishing hub of artistic avant-garde. Altoon, along with his equally talented and important contemporaries such as Ed Kienholz, Ed Moses, Robert Irwin, Billy Al Bengston, Kenneth Price, and Craig Kauffman, established the art historical importance of Los Angeles, anchored around the famous Ferus Gallery. Altoon’s untimely death at the age of 43 left behind a large body of works and numerous vivid memories of his unique personality. He is remembered for his talent, vitality, and inspiration. Stated Irving Blum, a partner in Ferus Gallery at the time, “if the gallery was closest in spirit to a single person, that person was John Altoon – dearly loved, defiant, romantic, highly ambitious – and slightly mad.”
As curator, Hugh Davies, expressed in his 1997 San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art catalogue for the John Altoon retrospective exhibition: “The legend of his persona continues to some degree to eclipse the radiance of his considerable artistic achievement…While sober hindsight confirms that Altoon’s behavior was at times diabolical, with this exhibition we can see for ourselves that – to quote the words of more than one of his contemporaries – ‘he drew like an angel.’” The same is apparent in the collection selected for JOHN ALTOON: Paintings and Drawings.
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