Connecting the Pieces: John Altoon’s Fragmented 'Ocean Park' Paintings

John Altoon’s Ocean Park paintings are notable for their exuberantly colored, biomorphic forms which float within a white field and playfully straddle the line between figuration and abstraction. In 1962, Altoon (1925-1969) produced a series of eighteen paintings – named after the neighborhood location of his studio in Venice, California – and first exhibited them in October of that year at the legendary Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles. Despite the widespread critical acclaim for the series and inclusion in significant museum exhibitions, Altoon suffered self-doubt compounded by mental illness. Throughout his adult life, he battled periods of extreme psychosis; in 1963, a psychologist diagnosed him as schizophrenic. That same year, Altoon got into the Ferus gallery storeroom and destroyed all his paintings. After the artist’s death, fragments of the destroyed paintings entered the commercial art market. The fact that they were pieces of larger compositions was either unknown or undisclosed at the time, and today, the public institutions that hold seven of these fragments were unaware of their status. When considered with the seven extant complete Ocean Park paintings, the fragments are a case study for issues of artistic intent, institutional stewardship, art market ethics, and conservation. Is Altoon’s destructive act evidence of his disavowal of the paintings or symptomatic of his mental illness? How should a museum catalog, document, and exhibit the fragments? If restoration is possible, what are the ethical and conservation issues involved with reconstructing pieces into a completed painting?