Yoko Ono works. Most famous unknown artist

February 18 marks Yoko Ono's 85th birthday. "The most famous unknown artist" - John Lennon knew what he was talking about when he gave his wife and muse such a characteristic, referring to the fame of her name to the general public, combined with ignorance of her work. Meanwhile, Yoko Ono not only stood at the origins of conceptual art, but also managed to leave her mark in almost all areas of culture. Artist, musician, director, fighter for peace - the Moscow 24 portal tells about the numerous roles of the artist and her contribution to contemporary art.

A future pioneer of conceptual art and one of the founders of performance art, Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo to an educated and artistic family. Her father, a professional pianist and banker, held one of the senior positions at the Bank of Japan. Living and working in the United States, he first introduced Yoko to America, where she lived intermittently as a child. A child of two diametrically opposed cultures, formed between East and West, Yoko absorbed the Eastern worldview and philosophy in order to later instill them with the help of her art on Western soil.

Until the age of twenty, the girl was educated at home, and in 1953 she moved to the States, where she entered college and plunged into the life of artistic bohemia. Soon, Yoko dropped out of college, and at 23, against the will of her parents, she married a young experimental composer, Toshi Ichiyanagi. At the same time, she began to engage in conceptual art. Despite the incredible activity of the girl, her acquaintances with famous avant-garde artists and the fact that her events were attended by the most prominent artists and collectors of that time, from Marcel Duchamp to Peggy Guggenheim, things did not go so smoothly - in 1962 she returned to her parents in Japan to heal nerves after artistic experiments that did not find understanding among viewers and critics. Yoko was followed to Japan by her main fan - Anthony Cox, a musician, film producer and curator, who soon became her colleague, producer, and also the second husband and father of her daughter Kyoko.

A few years later, in 1966, the artist met John Lennon, who came to her exhibition. Interested in the Beatle, Yoko Ono sought his attention for a long time, until she received it in full, becoming up to tragic death Lennon as his main collaborator, muse and wife.

With this third marriage in the life of Yoko Ono, a new, most ambitious chapter began, combining, on the one hand, fame and the tireless attention of the press, often combined with attacks and hatred, on the other hand, new performances and exhibitions, recording music albums, tireless and the ongoing promotion of peace, for which they actively campaigned with Lennon. Yoko Ono continues to do all this today with the same inexhaustible energy and humor that even young people can envy. And we suggest recalling the most diverse activities of this legendary Japanese woman - from performances that have become classics of modern art to her struggle for peace.

The Japanese origin does not prevent the artist from being a distant (non-blood) relative of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - the Russian young lady Anna Bubnova, who is a descendant of Yakov Hannibal, the poet's cousin, married Shun'ichi Ono, the son of the president of the Japanese industrial bank and future uncle Yoko Ono in 1918 and left with him to Japan. Subsequently, Aunt Anna had a great influence on Yoko - her son died in adolescence, the woman could no longer have children and gave all her love to her little niece, giving her lessons in drawing and playing the piano. In 2007, Yoko paid tribute to her aunt by anonymously visiting the Pushkin Museum in her homeland, the village of Bernovo, Tver Region.

performances

At the forefront of performing arts, Yoko Ono was one of the first to include the viewer in her actions.. Limiting the role of the artist in creating a work of art and partially transferring his powers to the viewer - such an idea was fundamentally new and shocking for the art of the mid-twentieth century, before It was used only in music ("4" 33" by John Cage). The artist herself admitted that and it was not so easy for her, but the task of suppressing her ego in the name of further development seemed to her especially important at that time.

performance "Light a match and watch it until it burns out", the essence of which lies in its name, was first held in 1955 and became one of the first documented performances in the history of art. In the origins of this action, it is not difficult to discern the contemplation of the East - the origin of the artist can be traced in many of her works, however, Yoko Ono's fundamental psychological "openness" allows her to be called a person with Western psychology.

"Voice for Soprano" Ono was founded in 1961. The performance space consisted of an empty room with the text "Scream against the wind / shout against the wall / shout against the sky" written on one of the walls. The viewer was asked to scream with all their might, thereby violating the main rule of museum behavior. Reproduced in 2010 at the New York Museum of Modern Art, this work turned out to be "too" loud, scandalous, excessive even for the modern world - bringing chaos to the art world, "Voice for the Soprano" was partially curtailed at the initiative of museum workers.

As part of the 1964 performance Bag piece, the artist suggested that two people, having undressed, hide in a huge dark bag and spend several minutes there, deciding for themselves what exactly they would do there. The goal of the artist was to create a situation in a space of complete darkness in which race, gender, social status and material condition of people would cease to matter. Differences between people were erased inside the bag with the help of darkness and the vulnerability of naked bodies. People could be anyone. The space of freedom - this was what Yoko Ono gave to everyone who wanted to take part in her performance.

Perhaps Ono's most famous and successful performance, Cut a Piece, was first presented in Tokyo in 1964, repeated the following year in New York, and in 1966 in London. During the performance, the artist sat on her knees in her best outfit, with scissors in front of her. The audience was invited to join her on stage and cut off pieces of her clothes. Provoking the viewer to actively intervene in her personal space, silently and resignedly surrendering to his power, even ten years before the scandalous "Rhythm 0" by Marina Abramovich, which became famous, the artist symbolically offered herself as a voluntary sacrifice. She repeated this performance many years later, in 2003 in Paris, dedicating it to September 11, 2001 and making it a kind of call for peace.

installations

"A picture to be nailed" 1961 - one of the so-called instruction works, in which the viewer became a co-author of the work in the course of following the artist's instructions. The work consisted of a canvas and a hammer lying on it, with the help of which the viewer was asked to drive a nail into an initially pure white space and wrap his hair around it. The work was considered finished when the space of the canvas was completely covered with nails. Likewise, "Painting to Step On" became a work of art in the process of accumulating shoe prints on it, and "Smoking Picture"- in the process of burning the canvas with cigarettes, which the audience had to extinguish on it. With her works, Yoko postulated a new idea - a work of art should no longer hang on the wall and be out of the access zone, it became a work as a result of collective creativity, collective action.

"White Chess" is a minimalist work, also designed to erase the differences between people, the artificial division into black and white, winners and losers, "good" and "bad". It was a board with chess painted exclusively white, which the viewer was invited to play. The chessboard was accompanied by the instruction: "Play until you remember who your opponent is and who you yourself are." Main question and the problem that the viewer was asked to think about - how and where to move when your opponent is indistinguishable from yourself. The roots of this idea can also be found in Eastern philosophy, according to which each of us is part of one whole and we are all united. In this inherently anti-war work, Ono tried to get people to look beyond the artificial divisions we place in front of each other.

"Ceiling Painting / YES Painting" 1966 - the installation, thanks to which, according to one of the legends, Yoko Ono met John Lennon. A white staircase in the center of the empty room led the viewer to a glass frame fixed to the ceiling. A magnifying glass hung on a chain next to her. Looking through it at the frame, one could make out the word "YES" written on a tiny piece of paper behind the glass. It was this "YES" that captivated Lennon - it was so different from most of the works of the conceptualists, who were mainly engaged in protest, and not the approval of anything.

In 2009, for her contribution to art, Yoko Ono was awarded the highest award of the Venice Biennale - the Golden Lion.

Movies

Art classes could not but lead Yoko Ono to experimental cinema - in the second half of the 1960s, she created a number of short films. Among them are single-frame "Blink" and "Match", which lasted several minutes and were shot with a special camera at a speed of 2000 frames per second.

One of the most famous films Yoko Ono from the same period - "No. 4". During the film, the viewer sees the buttocks of moving people one after the other, and the soundtrack is interviews of these and other people, discussing whether it is worth acting in this film and whether the viewer will be bored watching it. Thus, the soundtrack simultaneously commented on the feelings that the viewer naturally experienced. As an idea for the work, Yoko named her favorite topic - the destruction of barriers between people, this time by demonstrating the most unprotected part of the body. She later called the film "something like an aimless petition", ironic and at the same time outrageous to society.

A less ironic film is 1969's Rape, in which a film crew chases a woman they meet in a park through the streets of the city all the way to her apartment. Subsequently, during the demonstration, this film was perceived by the audience as Ono's story about life under the constant attention of the press.

Music

Yoko received her first music lessons at the age of three at a music school for gifted children, where she studied piano, composition and musical literature. Later, when she moved to New York, the famous avant-garde composer John Cage, who actively supported the young artist's creative pursuits, became her mentor.

The first large-scale experiments of Ono in music date back to the time of its life together and creativity with John Lennon - starting with the recording of the single Give Peace a Chance in 1969, which became the anthem of the American anti-war movement, they founded the Plastic Ono Band, which released their first album in the same year. Yoko Ono's first solo album was released the following year. Combining popular music with the avant-garde, since 1969 she has released more than two dozen albums, topped the dance charts more than once (bypassing such singers as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry), won two Grammys and performed all over the world.

Books

Yoko Ono's most famous printed work, The Grapefruit, is directly related to her career as an artist and is a collection of instructions for creating art - literally or in the reader's imagination. Published in 1964 and recognized as one of the major examples of conceptual art in the first half of the sixties, this book contained more than 150 ideas divided into five sections: music, painting, event, poetry and object. The book went through many reprints and translations into other languages ​​and served as the inspiration for Lennon's most famous song Imagine - many of the book's "instructions" began with this very word. For example, a snippet about a tuna sandwich:

Imagine a thousand suns in
sky at the same time.
Let them shine for an hour.
Then let them gradually melt
in the sky.
Make a tuna sandwich and eat it.

Or "cloud fragment":

Imagine that the clouds are falling down.
Dig a hole in your garden and put them in there.

There were also sadder fragments, such as "Hide and Seek Fragment":

Hide until everyone goes home.
Hide until everyone forgets about you.
Hide until everyone is dead.

In 2013, a kind of continuation of "Grapefruit" - "Acorn" was released, containing concise illustrations along with instructions.

Fight for peace

Started by involving the viewer in the process of creating works of art, Yoko Ono soon expanded her activities to planetary proportions, turning into an activist for peace and human rights. A big role in her political views was played by the fact that during the Second World War the future artist lived with her family in Japan. She herself admitted that the half-starved military existence, as well as (and above all) the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, made an indelible impression on her in childhood.

Having started the fight for peace with the famous "bed interviews" that Ohno and Lennon handed out for a week right out of bed immediately after the wedding (protesting in this peculiar way against the Vietnam War), they continued to carry their message by posting on Christmas Eve 1969 in twelve cities world billboards with the words "WAR IS OVER! If you want it. Merry Christmas from John and Yoko."

In the 1990s, the artist's work acquired a charitable character. In 1997, she organized an annual competition for emerging musicians in memory of John Lennon and his creative legacy, and in 2002, the Lennon-Ono Peace Grant, awarded every two years to individuals, organizations, and entire countries. In addition, she has repeatedly acted as the organizer of charity concerts (to help the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack in New York, to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, etc.).

The artist supports environmental organizations- Being one of the initiators of the Artists Against Fracking coalition, she opposes the dangerous technology of shale gas extraction.

In 2014 in honor of international day world Yoko Ono transferred to the UN the rights to Lennon's most commercially successful song Imagine, thus forcing the "song of the world" to work for the values ​​proclaimed by its creator, not only ideologically, but also materially.

But the main way of Yoko Ono's struggle for peace remains the postulation and dissemination of the idea of ​​the possibility and necessity of a conflict-free coexistence of people all over the world. Posting your artistic messages everywhere - from social networks and billboards of the most major cities world to the leading print media, she teaches us every day positive thinking and inspires creativity, self-confidence and a peaceful future. "Believe in yourself and you will change the world"; "Laugh during the week"; "Surrender to the World" are small performances that Yoko Ono invites each of us to perform right now, without delay. Today, like every day, she believes that each of us can make this world a better place. This is the main idea that "the most famous unknown artist" has been bringing to the world for more than half a century.

Liza Minaeva

Friends called this couple "Romeo and Juliet of the 70s", and ill-wishers considered her a demon in a female form, and his uncomplaining victim. However, in the history of Yoko Ono and John Lennon, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance.

She is..

Japanese avant-garde artist Yoko Ono, despite her high position in society, has always been known as an eccentric. She is the daughter of a wealthy banker, who has lived in the United States since childhood and dreamed of becoming opera diva, sought to overcome the barriers between the rich and the poor, but neither one nor the other did not understand her. The lot of the charming but strange Yoko was loneliness, as her peers despised her for her wealth, and her parents were unpleasantly surprised at her attempts to make friends with the poor. “Child of the Ocean” (that’s how the name Yoko sounds in Russian) was inclined towards conceptual art, and if then critics smashed the works of the failed opera singer to smithereens, now Ono is considered the mother of the modern avant-garde.

Little Yoko with her parents:

Yoko:

Before meeting with John Lennon, the attractive artist had two marriages. At 23, she married the Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, but the relationship did not last long, and soon after the breakup, the girl ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

Toshi Ichiyanagi:

Later, she was "rescued" from there by jazz musician Anthony Cox, who was an ardent admirer of the work of Yoko and herself. In vain, the press called this woman ugly, because men didn’t think so, on the contrary, many regarded her as more than an attractive woman. As for the affair with Anthony Cox, it was so stormy that the spouses threatened each other with murder in case of betrayal or separation, which nevertheless followed after some time. From this union, Yoko has a daughter, Kyoko, and thank God, Anthony's threats turned out to be just an empty phrase. Despite two unsuccessful marriages, Yoko did not lose her magnetism and continued to tempt men.

Anthony Cox and Yoko Ono:

He…

John Lennon, the owner of world fame, an army of fans and a lot of Money, by the time he met Yoko Ono, he was tired not only of the hype associated with The Beatles, but also of his personal life. John's life before Yoko was like an endless groundhog day, even though the picture changed every day. He drank, cheated and dreamed of a better life although it didn't start out so badly.

Little John:

John:

With his first wife, Cynthia, John met while studying at an art college, when she was an exemplary student, and he was a bully. However, despite such a significant difference, Lennon was able to like Cynthia, but the affair was not so serious until the girl became pregnant. Honest and noble John decided to marry Cynthia and they had a son, Julian. Years passed, John turned into a world-class star, and Cynthia from an exemplary student reincarnated into a mother and wife exhausted by family troubles. Everything would have gone on as usual if Beatle John hadn't met Yoko.

“I have always dreamed of meeting a creative woman like me. And I was sure that such a thing does not exist.

Cynthia and John:

They are…

John and Yoko met on November 9, 1966 when he went to her art exhibition. Lennon, in general, was not eager to look at the work of Ono, but since his friends advised him so insistently, he went and got there just on the day when the exhibition had not yet opened. The star was let in and he was stunned by what he saw, seeing a kindred spirit in the creative artist. Just at that moment, he needed an understanding person, because. John is in trouble.

“I was dissatisfied with myself, I ate and drank like a pig. The cocky rock and roll hero suddenly turned out to be a frightened guy. And I started screaming for help"

John and Yoko:

An affair with Yoko that began immediately after their meeting on that very day led to John's divorce from Cynthia and a new union between John and Yoko, which they officially entered into on March 20, 1969. Their romance was like a fairy tale, a meeting of two halves, but the members of The Beatles saw how Yoko influenced her husband and took him away from the group ... Paul McCartney was especially indignant, who did not want to give up the success and popularity of millions of people. But John chose Yoko and stopped being a Beatle.

On the wedding day:

“There were two discoveries in my life - Paul and Yoko. I think I made the right choice."

Yoko and John later broke up for a while due to irreconcilable differences, but in February 1975 they got back together. On October 9 of the same year, Yoko gave birth to a son, Sean.

“He is my biggest pride. Yes, I gave up music and wallowed in diapers, but I like it! It’s good that Yoko and I didn’t manage to part!”

John, Yoko and Sean:

Our days. Yoko and Sean:

But this story does not have a happy ending. On December 8, 1980, John was killed. He seemed to have a premonition of his death, in his youth saying “Probably a mentally ill person will shoot me,” and two weeks before the incident, he fired his bodyguards, fearing for their lives. It turned out that the crazy fan did not like the Lennon who lived happily next to Yoko and his son. A cruel retribution for happiness befell Yoko and John, but this Strong woman still carefully preserves the memory of her husband who passed away early, often recalling his words:

“There is no death. It's like moving from one car to another."

Name: Yoko Ono (Yoko Ono Lennon)

Age: 86 years old

Growth: 157

Activity: artist, singer

Family status: divorced

Yoko Ono: biography

Yoko Ono Lenon - Japanese avant-garde artist, singer, writer, widow of one of the most popular musicians of the 20th century -. World renowned peace activist.

Yoko Ono was born on February 18, 1933 in Japan. For the first three years she lived with her mother Isoko Ono in Japan, during which time her father Eisuke Ono lived and worked in San Francisco. occupied leadership position at the US office of the Bank of Japan. Soon mother and daughter moved to America, but it turned out that not for long. They had to return to their homeland when Eisuke was transferred to the New York branch.

The girl showed a craving for creativity from childhood. Already at the age of three she was sent to music school. The girl received her education at the prestigious Gakushuin School. In 1953, Yoko entered Sarah Lawrence College in America, where she studied music and literature for several years. The girl planned to be opera singer.

Creation

Before meeting John Lennon, Yoko's work was not appreciated by critics. The girl organized strange performances, for example, "Cut a Piece". The artist sat motionless on the floor of the stage, and the audience had to take turns climbing the stage and cut off a piece from her clothes. This performance lasted until Youko was naked. This performance was performed by a woman more than once. The last time the avant-garde artist appeared before the public in this image was in 2003 in Paris, at that time she was 70 years old.

But it is not limited solely to the scope of the artist. In 1964, a woman published a collection of poetry miniatures "Grapefruit". According to her, it was he who determined her future creative way. The artist embodied these miniatures in installations, films and performances.

But meeting John Lenn changed them both. If at first the musician only occasionally helped organize exhibitions of Yoko Ono, then he soon realized that they were two halves of the same soul. But many Beatles fans blame her for the breakup. legendary band. In one of the interviews, he said that Yoko Ono was not to blame for this. According to him, no one inspired Lennon like this Japanese woman. And if not for her, the world would never have heard the great hit "Imagine".

The artist has always been distinguished by her outrageousness. Perhaps the most famous action of John and Yoko was Bed-In For Peace. Dozens of journalists gathered at the Hilton Hotel to watch the birth of a new art movement. It was a peaceful protest against the war - for a week Lennon and Oko lay in bed, answered reporters' questions, took pictures. Thanks to them, slogans for peace appeared on the front pages of newspapers.

Yoko Ono and John Lennon formed their own Plastic Ono Band in 1969. The couple has released nine albums together.

But the strangest and most provocative was their first album "Two Virgins" ("Two virgins"). According to Lennon, it was recorded in one night. But, as it turned out, there were no musical compositions on it. There were some noises, screams, groans. And on the cover was their nude photo.

But perhaps the most famous of their joint photography was the work of Annie Leibovitz for the cover of Rolling Stone. In the picture, a naked John Lennon hugs and kisses a dressed Yoko Ono lying next to him. This photo was taken on December 8, 1980, just five hours before the musician was murdered.

After Lennon's death, the artist continued her creative path. In Japan, a woman has opened a museum with a telephone in the center of the hall. Sometimes he starts calling - this is Yoko giving visitors the opportunity to talk to the exposition.

She records albums that become iconic in her musical career: "Starpeace", "It's Alright" She also publishes John Lennon's unfinished album Milk and Honey. In 2007 the artist visited Moscow. In the TSUM, as part of the 2nd Moscow Biennale, her exhibition "Odyssey of a cockroach" was held.

Personal life

At 23, Yoko Ono, despite the prohibitions of her parents, marries the Japanese Toshi Ichiyanagi. He was a talented but poor composer. It was a time when the girl sought to earn the love and recognition of the public. She regularly arranged exhibitions and performances, which ended in failure. Critics did not take her work seriously. This led the girl to depression. She tried several times to commit suicide, but her husband Toshi saved her every time. When Yoko's parents found out about this, they committed the girl to a psychiatric hospital.

The American film producer Anthony Cox, who was a big fan of Yoko's work, also found out about this. Anthony went to Japan to support the girl. At the end of treatment, he took Yoko to New York and began to produce her projects. At that time, the girl was still married to Ichiyanagi, but without thinking twice, she leaves her husband and marries Cox. In marriage, a daughter, Kyoko, was born.

1966 became a fateful year for Yoko Ono. An exhibition was held at the London Indica Art Salon. It was there that she met a member of The Beatles. At that time, Lennon was married to Cynthia Lennon, and Yoko was married to Cox. After this meeting, the artist began to actively seek the attention of the singer.

A woman could sit for hours at his house, and one day she got inside. Cynthia let her in so that the artist could call a taxi. She later stated that she allegedly forgot the ring at the Lennons' house. Yoko sent threatening letters, demanded money. As a result, in November 1968, John and Cynthia Lennon divorced. main reason the gap was the betrayal of the singer. Cynthia found her husband and Ono in their own bed.

After that, Yoko Ono breaks up with Anthony Cox, and on March 20, 1969, Yoko and John register an official marriage in Gibraltar. In 1975, their son Sean was born. This happened on the birthday of John Lennon himself - October 9th. By the way, their son followed in the footsteps of his father. He also became a musician.

But before the birth of a son, the couple had problems. They even broke up for a year and a half. The couple moved to New York, but they could not get a residence permit. And if Lennon was ready to return to London, Ono was categorically against it. The fact is that her daughter Kyoko lived with her father in America, and the woman did not want to deprive herself of communication with the girl.

Shortly after Lennon's death, Yoko married antiques dealer Sam Hawadtoy, their marriage ended in 2001.

Yoko Ono now

In 2016, 83-year-old Yoko Ono posed for the annual Pirelli calendar. For the photo shoot, the artist wore mini-shorts, a short jacket and a top hat, looking like a cabaret dancer.

In the same year, the artist was urgently hospitalized in a New York hospital with a suspected stroke. But her son Sean denied the rumors, saying that his mother had the flu, and fatigue and dehydration appeared on the background of the illness.

The woman is constantly suing for the rights to her name and the name of John Lennon. In November 2017, she won a lawsuit against the owner of the Hamburg beer Yoko Mono because of the similarity of the name of the institution with her name. She also won a ban on the sale of a Polish lemonade called John Lemon.

The official website of the artist presents her last works, news about exhibitions, photos and videos.

Works

• 1964-2003 - performance "Cut a Piece"
• 1966-2016 - "Mend Piece" (Mirrors)
• 1988 - Disappearing Piece
• 1988 - "Painting to Be Stepped On"
• 1994 - Untitled
• 1997 - "Vertical Memory"
• 1998 - "Painting to See the Room Through"
• 2009 - "Promise"
• 2011 - "The Doors"

10 chose

If not for David Chapman's shot in December 1980, today she would have congratulated him on his 73rd birthday.But she is also content with the fact that their common son Sean has a holiday today - he turned 38...

He was amazed by her creativity and often called her a Martian...

They were both lost souls in a crowd of people. Both of them were waiting for their "second halves" at home, but they found harmony only when they were together...

She is...

Yoko was born in February 1933 in Tokyo, where she lived with her mother for about three years. All this time, her father was in the United States - in San Francisco, where his office was located.

The family managed to be moved to him for only a year, since the administration decided to transfer him - as a representative of the management team in the American branch Bank of Japan- to New York, and Yoko and her mother had to return back to Tokyo.

For a couple of years, the father managed to settle down and again called the family to him. But the reunion did not last long this time either - with the outbreak of war in 1940, Yoko and her mother returned to their homeland again.

Yoko received a good education - she graduated from a prestigious school, entered american college Sarah Lawrence with the firm intention of becoming an opera singer. In addition, the girl studied literature and art. She liked to roam the campus on huge platforms with her nose open so that her fingers stuck out. She liked to watch how classmates first of all paid attention to her legs, were surprised, and only then looked at her face.

Three years later - in 1956 - against the will of her parents, Yoko got married. Her first husband was the talented composer Toshi Ichiyanagi. Through his acquaintances who had connections with avant-garde artists in New York, Yoko tried to realize herself as an artist.

She arranged numerous performances, performances, installations... But not a single project was successful either with the general public or with critics. She just wasn't taken seriously. Being a creative, sensitive nature, Yoko fell into a deep depression and repeatedly tried to commit suicide.

As a result, Toshi forcibly took his wife back to Japan and placed her in a psychiatric hospital. It was there that Yoko found one of the few ardent admirers of her work, Anthony Cox.

After discharge, Anthony supported Yoko - he became her producer and assistant. And soon in New York they again began to put up posters with announcements of new Yoko exhibitions.

In 1963, she gave birth to a daughter, Kyoko, and after another three years, she looked at her exhibition. He...

He...

Most of his childhood was spent in the family of his maternal aunt. John's parents separated almost immediately after the appearance of his son, and his mother remarried.

Aunt was distinguished by a strict disposition and often reproached John for frivolity (especially when he was imbued with music and began to spend a lot of time playing the guitar). But with uncle young man excellent relationship developed.

From childhood, John was distinguished by a sharp mind and often made sharp jokes about friends, relatives and teachers. But at school he was frankly bored, so he quickly turned from a successful student into a malicious truant, driving teachers into a frenzy with his caricatures of them.

But at the same time, the school turned out to be an excellent platform for the first creative steps of the future star - here he sang with pleasure in the choir, published a handwritten magazine, which he himself illustrated. And the school "gave" its name to his first musical group, which John organized with his schoolmates - The Quarrymen.

He failed his final exams, but thanks to the help of the headmaster, he managed to enter the art college, where he met his first wife - Cynthia Powell.

Around the same time, an era began in his life. The Beatles, incredible success, the death of his own mother, with whom he nevertheless became close, the wedding with Cynthia, the birth of the first son Julian ...

During this time, John has become a truly iconic figure in almost all over the world. And in 1966 Paul McCartney as an entertainment, he advised him to look at an avant-garde exhibition at the New York Indica Gallery, where a Japanese artist presented her work ... She is...

They are...

In fact, exactly how John and Yoko met, no one will say for sure now. A beautiful romantic version of their meeting in 1966, later replicated by the lovers themselves, sounds like this: John went to the exhibition on the advice of Paul. And the only exhibit that struck him to the core was Yoko's work - a high staircase to the ceiling, which he had to climb along with the proposed magnifying glass, and with its help find the word "Yes" on the canvas attached to the ceiling. John expected a catch - that there is no "Yes" on the canvas and that all this is just a hint at the imperfection of this world. But... To my incredible delight, "Yes" was still on the canvas.

The relationship between the artist and the frontman after that developed rapidly and ... painfully for their soul mates. Yoko bombarded John with parcels and telegrams with one she (or the two of them) understandable phrases, more than once tried to enter his house and completely ignored Cynthia. John didn't resist, didn't make excuses. He seemed to be literally fascinated by Yoko. Anthony, at some point, lost his patience and tried to bring Yoko back by force.

Their crazy romance lasted about two years, after which Yoko finally broke up with Anthony, and John divorced Cynthia.

From 1943 to 1953, Yoko was educated at the prestigious Gakushuin School in Tokyo. In 1953, she entered Sarah Lawrence College in the United States, where she studied literature and music for the next few years, intending to become an opera singer. In 1956, despite the protests of her parents, Yoko Ono dropped out and married the composer Toshi Ichiyanagi. The couple lived in the Greenwich Village area of ​​New York, where Ono was able to immerse herself in the world of the avant-garde artists who lived in it. Numerous performances, exhibitions and performances by Yoko Ono were not successful.

In 1962, Ono's parents forcibly took their daughter to Japan and placed her in one of the psychiatric clinics. In the hospital, Ono found a fan of her talent, producer and jazz musician Anthony Cox, with whom they returned to the United States together. Ono and Cox began a collaboration that would eventually bear fruit. They soon married, and on August 8, 1963, their daughter, Kyoko Ono Cox, was born.

In 1965, Yoko Ono performed her famous Cut a Piece performance in New York, during which the audience in the hall had to take turns climbing the stage, picking up scissors and cutting off a piece of the artist's clothes. The performance continued until Yoko Ono was naked. The symbolic meaning of this performance, according to Yoko Ono, was the desire for peace: she seemed to take on the cruelty and violence intended for all mankind.

In 1966, Yoko Ono went to London (Great Britain), where she presented an exhibition of her work at the Indica Gallery, which was visited by the musician, member of The Beatles, John Lennon. After the first meeting at the exhibition, Yoko Ono tried to get Lennon's attention by besieging him with letters. In 1968, they began to live together and released the album Two Virgins, on the cover of which they appeared completely naked. On November 8, 1968, Lennon divorced his wife Cynthia, and on March 20 the next, his marriage to Yoko was registered.

Lennon often brought Yoko to The Beatles rehearsals, breaking the unspoken rule of the band members not to let strangers into the studio. Because of this, the musicians felt discomfort, which fueled the tension that already reigned in the team. At the same time, Lennon and Ono continued to create joint projects and in 1969 formed their own group, calling it the Plastic Ono Band. A year after the breakup of The Beatles, in 1971, Lennon and Ono moved to New York.

For a long time, the couple were on the verge of being expelled from the United States in connection with drug possession charges. Yoko Ono was very nervous about this, as returning to London reduced her chances of reuniting with her daughter Kyoko. Yoko Ono's daughter from her second marriage to producer Anthony Cox, after the divorce of her parents, remained with her father, who in 1971 took her away in an unknown direction. It believed that in the USA. The artist made attempts to find her daughter, but they did not manage to meet until 1994.

On October 9, 1975, Lennon and Ono had a son, Sean, in New York. The musician stopped creative activity and until 1979 he devoted all his time to his family. In September 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono signed a contract with the new Geffen label, and on November 15, 1980, John Lennon's last lifetime album, Double Fantasy, was released. On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark David Chapman. The killer got life imprisonment who is serving in prison strict regime"Attica", near the city of Buffalo.

After Lennon's murder, Yoko Ono married antiques dealer Sam Havadtoy. Ono continued to make music, releasing the album It's Alright (I See Rainbows) in 1982. Two years later, the singer released the album Every Man Has a Woman, consisting of Ono's best songs, and Lennon's unfinished album Milk and Honey. Ono released her next musical work, Starpeace, in 1986. The album became Yoko Ono's most successful solo effort, with the single Hell in Paradise reaching #16 on the US charts and #26 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Then Yoko Ono took a break, during which she re-recorded and remastered her albums on the Rykodis label. In 1992, the Onobox six-disc collector's set was released, which included Ono's solo work and Lennon's material from the 1974 sessions. In 1995, Ono collaborated with her son Sean Lennon and his band to record the album Rising. A world tour in support of the album took place in Europe, Japan and the United States.
In 2001, Ono divorced Sam Hawadtai, and in 2002 a number of club remixes of the singer's compositions were created. The project was a great success with Pet Shop Boys, Orange Factory, Peter Rauhofer, and Danny Tenaglia participating. In April 2003, Yoko Ono's remix album Walking on Thin Ice topped Billboard's Dance/Club Play Chart.

In November 2004, the singer became the leader of the charts with the single Everyman…Everywoman… (a remake of the song Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him). In 2006, Ono appeared at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin (Italy), where she delivered a few words of welcome before English musician Peter Gabriel performed John Lennon's Imagine. In 2007, Ono's large-scale traveling project "Odyssey of the Cockroach" was presented in Moscow as part of the Second Moscow Biennale, a kind of retrospective of the artist's views. In 2008, in Shanghai (PRC), the opening took place and was awarded an award from the city of Hiroshima for his contribution to contemporary art and the peace movement.

Yoko Ono constantly monitors the political situation in the world and responds to it if he considers it necessary. In August 2012, Yoko Ono and his son Sean Lennon formed the Artists Against Fracking coalition, a hydraulic fracturing technique used in shale gas production.
The members of the coalition are musicians Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, singer Lady Gaga, actors Alec Baldwin and Uma Thurman, and writer Salman Rushdie.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources