John Lennon described her as
"the most famous unknown artist in the world: everyone knows her name, but no one knows what she does
. "
To get out of the vagueness, Yoko Ono's work is at the heart of a retrospective at the Tate Modern in London.
Entitled
Music
of the Mind
,
the exhibition which opens Thursday and runs until September 1, explores the creations of Yoko Ono, 91 years old next Sunday, best known for being the widow of the ex-Beatle as an icon of conceptual art.
“This exhibition truly celebrates the artist that Yoko was,”
Andrew de Brun, one of the curators, explains to AFP.
“John Lennon was an important contributor to her, but we are very happy to exhibit his art.”
Read alsoJohn Lennon and Yoko Ono, music in peace on Arte
Conceptualism
Retracing seven decades, the museum presents 200 works, installations, objects, videos, photos, sculptures and documents that look back on his performances and musical compositions.
The retrospective, presented as the largest to date,
“recognizes the importance of Yoko Ono in contemporary art and culture
,” underlines the curator.
“We are delighted to present his work to new generations of visitors
,
his activism, his campaigns for peace
,” he adds.
Since her first exhibition in New York in the 1950s, Tokyo-born Yoko Ono has distinguished herself in conceptualism, a movement according to which the idea is more important than the work itself.
The exhibition looks at some of her most controversial works, such as the video for
Cut Piece
, which she presented in Japan and then at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York.
On stage, she appears in a black dress, leaving scissors behind her, allowing the audience to cut off her clothes, in order to draw attention to the violence that society inflicts on women.
The exhibition celebrates the journey of the artist, who for decades was accused by some of being responsible for the breakup of the Beatles in 1970.
Meeting with John Lennon
His installations at the Indica Gallery in London in 1967 captivated John Lennon.
On this occasion, a work called
Ceiling Painting
invited visitors to climb a ladder to see the word “yes” on the ceiling through a magnifying glass.
Lennon climbed the ladder and was dazzled by the creation, now on display in London.
“When
Painting to Hammer A Nail
was exhibited at Indica Gallery, someone came up and asked me if they could hammer a nail.
I said it would be okay if he gave me five shillings
, or a few cents, remembers Yoko Ono in her text
Some Notes on the Lisson Gallery Show
.
“Instead of paying five shillings, he asked if he could hammer in an imaginary nail.
It was John Lennon.”
They married in 1969 and remained together until Lennon was assassinated in New York in 1980, at the age of 40.
During their 13 years together, the couple released six albums and created recordings of experimental music, short films, performances and installations.
Along with Lennon, Yoko Ono achieved success in music, an aspect also covered in the exhibition.
In 1980, with the album
Double Fantasy
, recorded before Lennon's death, the pair won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
“When I hear music, my body starts moving
,” Yoko Ono said in a 2013 interview
. “I'm like that.
It's my body.
This was already the case as a child.”