JOHN ALTOON

1925 – 1969

JOHN ALTOON drew his lithographs at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop with founder June Wayne ‘looking over his shoulder’! Just two years later, after the launching of Gemini G.E.L and Cirrus and other ‘graduate master printers’, June Wayne transferred the Tamarind L.W.to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque where it successfully has continued its mission of supporting ‘lithography’ as a major technique of printmaking.

JOHN ALTOON….famously – sometimes ‘notoriously’ – created his art in and around Los Angeles, California.
He attended Otis Art Institute, Art Center College of Design and Chouinard Art Institute. He saw his art exhibited widely…from San Diego and Los Angeles to New York’s Whitney Museum and the Corcoran in Washington, DC.

His imagery tended to be ‘biomorphic’…some said… ’abstract expressionist’…some said…
…‘pornographic’ …..some said….

However, his peers, associates, fellow artists all pronounced him: ‘fun, friendly’ and ‘good company’.

Yes, he was ‘unstable’ at times…but still ‘fun’ , ‘friendly’ and ‘good company’!

These images capture John Altoon’s active mind and moods.