John Altoon

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John Altoon (1925-1969), an American artist, was born in Los Angeles, California. From 1947-1949 he attended the Otis Art Institute, from 1947 to 1950 he attended the Art Center College of Design in L.A., and in 1950 the Chouinard Art Institute. Altoon was one of the interesting characters in the LA art scene in the 1950's and 1960's. Leah Ollman[1] describes his life the best in an 1999 article in Art in America, "With his outsized personality and reckless intensity, John Altoon loomed large in the L.A. art scene of the '50s and '60s. Almost 30 years after his death, a survey exhibition[2] afforded another look at this provocative artist.

John Altoon was one of the baddest of the bad boys who shaped the Los Angeles art scene of the 1950s and '60s. A swarthy, imposing figure, he boasted of riding his motorcycle at speeds over 100 mph, and of driving a car blindfolded. Diagnosed as schizophrenic in his late 30s, Altoon suffered depression and periodically committed himself to Camarillo State Hospital. He also suffered paranoid episodes during which he destroyed much of his work and threatened to demolish that of others. He was "possessed by real demons," Larry Bell remembers.[3] Irving Blum, partner in the legendary Ferus Gallery, recalls: "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."[4] Altoon's struggle with mental illness, his big, dark, robust personality and his early death from a heart attack at 43 have, even more than his art itself, come to define his legacy."

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Leah Ollman, Art in America, Feb. 1999, "Altoon: Beyond the Aura - Works of John Altoon"
  2. ^ Exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, in 1997, curated by Hugh M. Davies and Andrea Hales
  3. ^ Craig Krull, Photographing the L.A. Art Scene 1955-1975, Santa Monica, Smart Art Press, 1996, p. 5
  4. ^ .ibid

[edit] External links