Yoko Ono

:For the Die Ärzte song, see Yoko Ono (song)

Artwork

Ono was an early member of Fluxus, a loose association of avant-garde artists that developed in the early 1960s.

Related Topics:
Fluxus - Avant-garde - 1960s

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Ono was among the first artists to explore conceptual art and performance art. An example of her performance art is "Cut Piece", during which she sat on stage and invited the audience to use scissors to cut off her clothing until she was naked. An example of her conceptual art includes her book of instructions called Grapefruit. This book, first produced in 1964, includes instructions that are to be completed in the mind of the reader, for example: "Hide and Go Seek Piece: Hide until everyone forgets about you. Hide until everyone dies." The book was published several times, and most widely distributed by Simon and Schuster in 1971, and reprinted by them again in 2000.

Related Topics:
Conceptual art - Performance art - Scissors - Naked - 1964 - Hide and Go Seek - Simon and Schuster - 1971 - 2000

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Ono was also an experimental filmmaker. She made sixteen films between 1964 and 1972, and gained particular renown for a 1966 film called simply No. 4, but often referred to as "Bottoms". The film consists of a series of close-ups of human buttocks as the subject walks on a treadmill. The screen is divided into four almost equal sections by the elements of the gluteal cleft and the horizontal gluteal crease. The soundtrack consists of interviews with those who are being filmed as well as those considering joining the project. In 1996, the watch manufacturing company Swatch produced a limited edition watch that commemorates this film.

Related Topics:
Filmmaker - 1964 - 1972 - 1966 - Buttocks - Treadmill - Gluteal cleft - Horizontal gluteal crease - Soundtrack - Interview - 1996 - Swatch

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Ono's work may best be appreciated by an open mind. She has been described as "the world's most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does."

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Ono has sometimes been maligned and vilified by critics who condemn her art. For example, Brian Sewell, art critic for the London Evening Standard and television personality, said: "She's shaped nothing, she's contributed nothing, she's simply been a reflection of the times...I think she's an amateur, a very rich woman who was married to someone who did have some talent and was the driving force behind the Beatles. If she had not been the widow of John Lennon, she would be totally forgotten by now...Yoko Ono was simply a hanger-on. Have you seen her sculpture or paintings? They're all awful."

Related Topics:
Critic - Brian Sewell - Art critic - ''Evening Standard'' - Amateur - Talent - The Beatles - John Lennon - Sculpture - Paintings

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However, the more common critical opinion is that Ono's work has been misunderstood and that it deserves attention and respect. Many scholars, art critics and members of the media have begun to reassess her art and to examine it seriously. In the past few years, Ono's work has regularly received recognition and acclaim. For example, Matthew Teitelbaum, director of the Art Gallery of Ontario, believes that "Yoko Ono is one of the world's most original and inspirational visual artists." Michael Kimmelman, the chief Art critic of the New York Times, wrote: "Yoko Ono's art is a mirror—like her work 'a Box of Smile,' we see ourselves in our reaction to it—a tiny prod toward personal enlightenment, very Zen."

Related Topics:
Members of the media - Art Gallery of Ontario - Visual artists - New York Times - Zen

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In 2001, YES YOKO ONO, a forty-year retrospective of Ono's work received the prestigious International Association of Art Critics USA Award for Best Museum Show Originating in New York City. (This award is considered one of the highest accolades in the museum profession.) In 2002 Ono was awarded the Skowhegan Medal for work in assorted media. And in 2005 she received a lifetime achievement award from the Japan Society of New York.

Related Topics:
2001 - Retrospective - International Association of Art Critics - New York City - 2002 - Skowhegan Medal - 2005 - Lifetime achievement award - Japan Society of New York

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Ono received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Liverpool University in 2001; in 2002 she was presented with the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from Bard College. Scott MacDonald, visiting professor of film at Bard, said: "She is to be congratulated for the body of work she has made, and celebrated for what she has come to represent, within media history and throughout the world: courage, resilience, persistence, independence, and, above all, imagination, and a belief that peace and love remain the way toward a brighter, ever-more-diverse human future."

Related Topics:
Honorary - Liverpool University - 2002 - Bard College

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