✎ About John Altoon

John Altoon was born on November 05, 1925 in Los Angeles, California, United States, United States, is Painter. John Altoon was an influential avant-garde American artist of his time who dominated the art scene of 1950s and ‘60s Los Angeles. Most of his works came under abstract expressionism, the first true artistic movement that emerged out of America. He rose to prominence as a part of a group of artists referred to as the ‘Ferus Group’ because of their association with the Ferus Gallery. This group included artists like Edward Keinholtz, Robert Irwin, Ed Ruscha, Ed Moses and Larry Bell among others. A highly popular figure in all his circles, this boisterous painter was a very passionate individual whose personality left a far greater legacy than his artistic works. By the end of his thirties, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and he was only 43 when he passed away following a massive heart attack. This marked the tragic end to the life of a lively, boozing, skirt-chasing man harried by bouts of depression and episodes of mania that was often destructive and violent.
John Altoon is a member of Painters

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some John Altoon images

Biography/Timeline

1959

John Al Toon was married to the Actress Fay Spain from 1959 to 1962. He was married to Roberta ("Babs") Lunine from 1966 until his death in 1969.

1960

Altoon was diagnosed as schizophrenic in his late 30s and suffered bouts of depression and paranoia . In the early 1960s he became a patient of Dr. Milton Wexler a prominent psychoanalyst who restored his ability to work and from then until his death became the most productive and stable years in his life. He was "possessed by real demons," Larry Bell remembers.

1999

Leah Ollman describes his life a 1999 article in Art in America, "With his outsized personality and reckless intensity, John Al Toon loomed large in the L.A. art scene of the '50s and '60s.

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20th-century American painters American male painters American painters Abstract expressionist artists American abstract artists American contemporary artists Modern painters 1925 births 1969 deaths Artists from Los Angeles Painters from California Chouinard Art Institute alumni Otis College of Art and Design alumni American people of Armenian descent Armenian American Ethnic Armenian painters