John Altoon came to prominence through his association with the Ferus Gallery of Los Angeles in the late 1950s. In 1961, Altoon moved into a studio in Venice, California and soon after began working on the Ocean Park series, named after a local neighborhood. This group of 18 paintings, and several works on paper, was a departure from Altoon’s usual all-over style of painting, because he eliminated much of the background by leaving most of the canvas surface empty and began on a neutral field.
Ocean Park Series #8, although abstract and seemingly spontaneous, is actually a unique view of the California coast. Although painting on a two dimensional canvas, Altoon depicts a landscape’s depth in the way that the fore-, middle- and backgrounds are all included in the composition. Broad, gestural strokes reveal the yellow and orange rays of the sun streaming down over blue and white cresting ocean waves that crash onto the brown landscape on which green vegetation grows.
Details
- Artist Name: John Altoon (American, 1925-1969)
- Title: Ocean Park Series #8
- Date: 1962
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 81-1/2 x 84 in. (207 x 213.4 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Anonymous Gift
- Accession Number: P.1964.30
- Copyright: © 2022 The Estate of John Altoon and Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
Object Information
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, 1964-1975;
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, 1975.
John Altoon
- La Jolla, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, 1997-12-07 to 1998-03-11
Knight, Christopher, Los Angeles Times,
Joyce, Julie et al., Pasadena to Santa Barbara: A Selected History of Art in Southern California, 1951-1969, p. 38
Hales, Andrea, John Altoon, p. 27
Jeff Gunderson, Sherri Fowler, Karin Breuer, Ed Hardy: Deeper than Skin, fig. 20 pp. 39-40; p. 40 (ill.)
Norland, G., John Altoon, no. 5 p. 7
Armory Center for the Arts/Art Center College of Design, Radical Past: Contemporary Art & Music in Pasadena, 1960-1974, p. 37
Pasadena Art Museum, West Coast 1945-1969,
Additional Artwork by Artist
Image reproduction permission may be granted for scholarly or arts related commercial use. All image requests, regardless of their intended purpose, should be submitted via the reproduction request form.
Images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Additional permission may be required.
Approved requests for the reproduction of an image will receive a contract detailing all fees and conditions of use of the image. Upon receipt of both the signed contract and full payment, the Office of Rights and Reproductions will provide the image. A complimentary copy of the published material must be provided to the Norton Simon Museum.