“There is a tension between Altoon’s achievement and his
influence. Looking back through the formalist lens of abstraction being
practiced in Europe and New York in the 1940s and ’50s, Altoon seems late to
the surrealist and expressionist party and a bit derivative . . . However, if
we look forward instead of back, to the future of art in LA., then Altoon is
not only influential but a strange prophet.”
Read the rest here:
http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/john-altoon/