It Speaks to Me: Charlie White on John Altoon pastel at MOCA

Altoon was a true artist's artist, and for a previous generation he was a cultural fixture and intense character within the Ferus group. Looking at this drawing, you begin to understand why he was so admired and also how someone so adventurous might have fallen out of the canon. While many of his paintings lean toward Abstract Expressionism, this work really feels like a benchmark for opening up a type of visual analysis of preexisting popular forms. The girls are executed in an illustrational style popular at the time in children’s books and advertising. But by taking the subjects' pants off, Altoon has made what you could call a raunchy or abject move. It’s like the trick pen from the same era — turn it to one side and the bathing suit comes off the girl.

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