Many artists in town had a problem with Joan's critiques. They could not accept her . . . And the way she reported whether she liked something or not. At Hunter College, where she majored in art, her mentor was legendary painter Robert Motherwell. Fulton Ross suggested that Altabe's ties to New York gave her a sophisticated artistic sense that might have been too advanced for Sarasota.
People come here to get away from thinking about anything other than that which is lovely.
Her job was to review the art in Sarasota, but that art was bad. So when she used traditional critical standards to judge it, she came off like a sourpuss. So at times she seemed to attack work that was obviously inferior. Several years ago, Altabe stopped reviewing gallery shows. So I didn't see any point to it.