Biography
He studied at the Dési Huber Circle, and between 1958-1963 he graduated as a pharmacist and attended the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts, where his masters were: Endre A. Fenyő, Géza Fónyi, Gyula Hincz and Jenő Barcsay. Between 1959-1964 he worked in various artist colonies (Sümeg, Salgótarján, Hódmezővásárhely, Kecskemét). In 1960, he took part in a study trip to Moscow, in 1962 to Prague, and in 1969 to Paris.
From 1965 he lived in Szigliget, where he built a house and farmed. From the mid-sixties on, the friendship between Ákos Szabó and Miklós Erdély, with whom he took part in joint avant-garde events: Hidden Parameters (film presentation by Miklós Erdély, Kossuth Klub, 1968), was decisive for him. At his 1971 exhibition, Miklós Erdély read Altorjai's self-ironic statement, the Manifesto of Gyagyaism. In 1979, he appeared in Erdély's film, entitled Version.
One of the lines of his art is the so-called characters of his personal mythology appeared in his colorful, painterly works, which can be classified as surrealism, created with the trickling, rubbing and cupping process (Self-portrait of a drunken pig, 1970; In the image of Bácsi Gyagya's red guru, 1970-1971).
His growing awareness of his illness encouraged him to create ever more acerbic and provocative works, large-scale montages, as well as "extended" versions of previous works came out of his hands. He prepared his posthumous exhibition in 1980 - with the help of Zoltán Érmezei - himself.
