John Altoon

1925 Born in Los Angeles, California, United States of America

1940 Attends Dorsey High School, Los Angeles. Wins scholarship to Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, but is dissatisfied with the course and returns to Dorsey High School

1941-45 Serves in the US Navy as a radar technician during World War II

1947 Re-enrols at the Otis Art Institute

1949 Transfers to the Art Center School, Los Angeles, to study illustration, but finds the emphasis on commercial art displeasing and leaves

1950 Enrols at Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles. Wins Anna Lee Stacey Award for Drawing. Moves to Santa Barbara, California to pursue art full-time; moves to New York and supports himself with advertising jobs

1951– 62 Teaches at the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles

1951 First solo exhibition, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California

1953 Wins Emily Lowe Award Solo exhibition, Artist’s Gallery, New York

1956-60 Teaches at the Art Center School, Los Angeles

1956 Meets Walter Hopps and Edward Kienholz, founders of the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles

1957 Included in inaugural exhibition of Ferus Gallery, Objects on the new landscape demanding of the eye

1960 Artist-in-Residence, Art Center School, Los Angeles

1961 Moves to new studio in Venice, California and begins the Ocean park Series. Teaches at the Chouinard Art Institute

1962 Included in travelling exhibition, Fifty California artists, organised by the San Francisco Museum of Art with assistance from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, originating at Whitney Museum of Art, New York. Receives William and Norma Copley Foundation Grant

1964 Included in exhibition, American drawing, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York

1964-68 Begins to use an air-brush and creates Hyperion, Sawtelle, Miramar, Seaview, Terrace, Sunset, The princess and the frog, and Cowboy and Indian series of drawings

1966 Completes series of ten colour lithographs, About Women, Gemini GEL, Los Angeles

1967 Solo exhibition, John Altoon, San Francisco Museum of Art, California. Completes lithograph, Untitled, Gemini GEL, Los Angeles

1968 Included in exhibition, Late fifties at Ferus, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

1969 John Altoon died on February 8, in California 

Barbara Delano © Tyler Graphics Ltd; revised Emilie Owens, 2007
This chronology provides an overview of selected biographical information, major solo and group exhibitions that took place both during his lifetime and following his death.