Yoko Ono exhibition debuts in London with art that made John Lennon fall for her
The artwork credited with bringing John Lennon and Yoko Ono together has pride of place in a new exhibition dedicated to Yoko's life work.
The Tate Modern is putting on a retrospective of Yoko's artwork, the largest ever show of her work in Britain, although she is sadly too frail to come and attend in person.
Works on show include the 'Yes Ladder' from 1966 which is one of the reasons Beatle Lennon became fascinated by Yoko. In the original work you climb a stepladder and hold a magnifying glass to the ceiling to see the word 'Yes' written down in tiny letters.
The Tate Modern is putting on a retrospective of Yoko's artwork (Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)Lennon saw the work at her show in 1966 was "so positive" afterwards. He added: "I felt relieved. It’s a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn’t say ‘no’ or ‘f**k you’ or something, it said ‘yes’.”
The musician then made efforts to meet the artist and he and Yoko began their love affair which lasted until he was shot in 1980 in New York. The pair made music and art together, much of it asking for peace and urging that 'War is Over' if you want it to be, which still seems apt today over 50 years later.
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In 2017 she finally received a writer's credit for her inspiration and influence on Lennon's iconic 1971 song Imagine. Yoko turns 91 later this month and is in the final stages of her life. She did not attend the press launch of the Tate show today in London and she has not even provided a new quote for the show or completed any interviews for the retrospective.
In the foreword to the catalogue for Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, the Tate director Karin Hindsbo said: "We offer our deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to Yoko Ono, for the gift of her expansive and transformative practice, which continues to resonate with and unite people around the world, and which, like a wish or a whisper, touches each one of us."
A gallery guest paints messages for peace on "Add Colour during a preview of the YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND (Anadolu via Getty Images)In 2020 the Mirror revealed Yoko appeared to have stopped working completely and has handed many of her business interests over to her son Sean. In October 2020 Sean Yoko Lennon was appointed a director at eight companies linked to Yoko and the Beatles including Apple Corp.
A report last year said Yoko had moved from New York City to a rural upstate New York farm that she and Lennon purchased together in 1978.
During the pandemic, Ono is said to have moved to her expansive 600-acre farm near Franklin, New York, in the Catskills, with no plans of returning to her Upper West Side abode.
She is said to be living a “peaceful life,” out of the public spotlight but would no doubt feel a sense of pride, if she could see the new London show herself.
Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind is at Tate Modern, London, from February 15 to September 1.
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