John Altoon (1925 – 1969) was a prominent avant-garde figure in the Los Angeles art scene in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a student of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, but his style was very much his own. The Laguna Art Museum describes his work as a “raucously biomorphic brand of abstract painting.” He was the subject of a major exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2014.

Master Printmaker and Silvermine Collections Manager James Reed serves as curator for this exhibit of lithographs from the “About Women” portfolio from the collection of Stephen Ames. The works in “About Women” were inspired by 3 poems “Anger,” “The Woman,” and “Distance,” written by Robert Creeley, a major twentieth-century poet known for his concision and emotional power.