The Idea and The Problem of
JOHN ALTOON
b. 1924 - d. 1967
THE EARLY WORK, PART 2
After art school in Los Angeles, and following a brief stop in Santa Barbara, Altoon moves to New York. The year is 1952 and the art scene is ablaze with the on-rush of Abstract Expressionism.
Jackson Pollock, Willem DeKooning, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newmann; all are exhibiting paintings of a kind never seen before. Big, bold, bright, brassy canvases built of layers, slashes, zips, drips, daubs, and skeins of paint.
How this new painting influenced the bold young artist from Southern California remains a mystery however, because the exhibition presents no works at all from Altoon's stay in New York. The exhibition's catalog reports that he exhibited in some group shows and sold some work, but what these looked like, we don't know.
Then, in 1954, after two years in New York, Altoon goes to Spain, where he takes up residence among a group of Americans living on the island of Mallorca. The catalog states that Altoon's aim was to focus more intently on his art making. The question of why he couldn't do this in New York, where art was being practiced more intensely than anywhere else, is never addressed.
