Untitled (Sunset Series 32 ) 1965

John Altoon made this painting, part of his Sunset series, using big, brave strokes of acrylic on canvas. Look at that juicy pink circle, like a giant gobstopper, and all those little orange tadpole shapes swimming inside! I can only imagine Altoon whipping up this image, trying to capture something fleeting. Did he lay the canvas flat on the floor or attack it upright? Was the pink circle there first, or did those squiggles happen spontaneously? You can almost feel Altoon’s hand moving, a sort of controlled frenzy, right? He’s pushing the paint around, making it do his bidding, but also letting it have its say. I like to think about Helen Frankenthaler here, another genius with colour, or maybe even Philip Guston's later work, where everything gets a little goofy and raw. There’s a connection in the air, an artist breathing the same oxygen. Painting is a kind of conversation, a back-and-forth between what you think you know and what the materials want to do. Altoon seems like he's really listening.