Painter Monique Prieto responds to John Altoon's painting Ocean Park Series #8, 1962 in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum.

Prieto remarks: "I perceive a temperature in the magenta that comes up from behind the forms – like hot-white L.A. air. He has somehow nailed down something very ephemeral and fleeting, and that's beautiful. He was clearly aware of the New York Abstract Expressionists but this is a West Coast sybaritic form, less puritanical."

A post by Cedar Sigo on the SFMOMA Open Space blog provides more context on John Altoon's life and career.