From 1960 through 1962, Altoon thrusts and jabs in yet another direction, incorporating "biomorphic" shapes (which will remain a feature of his work until his death) and distributing these across the surfaces of otherwise unworked canvases.

These shapes strongly suggest a return to the influence of the pre-war paintings of Arshille Gorky, which would have been au courant when Altoon was in art school, and in front of him when he was in New York. The use of unworked space suggests a borrowing from Altoon's fellow L.A. artist, Sam Francis. Altoon processes these influences in such a way that neither so dominates the work as to make it look merely derivative.

The paintings, however, have a major shortcoming in their tendency to look casual and sketch-like; akin to a page from some Old Master's notebook upon which a variety of poses for a figure are scattered here and there on the page, wherever there's room. This problem arises from the conflicting visual character of the sources Altoon borrows from in constructing the paintings.

On the one hand, Gorky's biomorphic shapes look like things that might exist in the world; a Surrealist, dreamy world. As a result, they induce a sense of tangible space on the canvas around them, as though this is where they live.

On the other hand, Sam Francis' color splotches don't look like anything other than what they are. They're non-referential, i.e. "abstract," and visually flat. As a result, they neither create nor demand a tangible space to occupy

This "one hand" and this "other hand," i.e., space and non-space, cannot and do not get along in the stark confrontation that Altoon sets up in these works; hence, the informal, sketch-like character.

Possibly recognizing this problem, Altoon would soon change direction yet again. This next body of work would be the most personal and, in many ways, the richest of his career -- a career that would shortly and suddenly end.