February 18, 1933, Tokyo, Japan
Yoko Ono is an English and American innovative artist, writer, and musician of Japanese descent. Yoko became known to the general public largely thanks to her marriage to John Lennon, a musician and member of the legendary Beatles band. However, long before this union, she clearly showed her talent in Conceptual art, becoming one of the pioneers of installation and performance.
The artist was one of the first to abandon the material in her art completely. Some of her performances do not include any objects at all but are an interactive act. Sometimes they consist only of verbal instructions that the visitor of the exhibition has to follow to understand and, importantly, feel the meaning of the author’s intention. For example, in the 1963 Cloud Piece, Yoko Ono invites viewers to dig a hole in the garden and pour clouds into it.
John Lennon called his wife “the most famous unknown artist in the world”. She was forced to constantly prove her worth as an original artist, not just the wife of the popular rock musician.
While simultaneously engaged in musical creativity, Yoko Ono managed to create bold and extraordinary conceptual works, many of which were far ahead of their time and deserved close attention from critics and fans of contemporary art. She continues to demonstrate her performances and installations in the 21st century.
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Was born into the family of an artist and a banker in Tokyo. From the age of four, Yoko studied music and attended the elite Gakushuin school. Despite their wealth, her parents paid little attention to the girl, and she always felt estranged in relations with her father and mother.
Ono’s family was forced to flee to the countryside in connection with the bombing of Tokyo by American aircraft. At that time, they lived very poorly and wandered from farm to farm in search of at least some income and food.
After returning home to Tokyo, she graduated from high school and entered the faculty of philosophy at Gakushuin University. Ono became the first woman to study at this faculty but had to drop out of school because her family moved to the United States, where her father got a job. After two years, she entered Sarah Lawrence College in New York. There the girl met many avant-garde artists and musicians. Yoko Ono studied at the Faculty of Music and planned to become an opera singer.
Despite the wishes of her parents, she married beginning composer Toski Ichiyanagi and dropped out of college. The newlyweds moved to Manhattan, where they were engaged in creativity and did not live well.
Yoko Ono created many different installations and performances, but the incredibly creative work of the young artist was not much approved by the public. Because of these failures, she began to experience depression, which led to several suicide attempts. Finding out this, the parents took Yoko to Japan and placed in a rehabilitation center.
Anthony Cox, an American jazz musician, producer, and promoter who became Yoko’s second husband, found the artist in Tokyo. The couple moved to New York, where Ono’s state improved thanks to the support of Anthony. At the end of the same year, the couple got a daughter, Kyoko.
Wrote a small poetry collection named “Grapefruit: a book of instructions and drawings”. In her book, the artist placed a series of instructions, many of which later became installations or performances. Ono said that this book became her guide to life and encouraged her to new creative achievements.
Met famous Beatles musician John Lennon at an exhibition. John participated in one of the installations invented by the Japanese artist, where he had to climb the stairs to the ceiling and look through a magnifying glass. The word “Yes” was written on the ceiling, and this inspired the musician a lot.
After receiving a divorce from Anthony Cox, she married John Lennon. Ono actively participated in her husband’s music career and temporarily abandoned her installations and original performances. Together with Lennon, they created the band Plastic Ono Band.
After a short separation, Ono and Lennon again began to live together in New York. On John’s birthday, October 9th, they had a son, Sean, who also became a musician – in 1995, Yoko and Sean released the album “Rising” and organized a world tour with the band “Ima”.
After the tragic death of her husband, Yoko Ono continued to study music and returned to her conceptual work. Released the music album “It’s Alright (I See Rainbows)”, several songs from which were popular. Retrospective exhibitions of the artist were regularly held in various cities around the world.
Participated in the Second Moscow Biennale with her exhibition “Cockroach Odyssey”. Visited the homeland of the wife of her uncle Bernovo (Tver region, Russia). Yoko organized one of her last solo exhibitions, “To The Light,” at the London Serpentine Gallery in 2012.