Yoko: Great artist or con artist?
JNash33040
Yoko: Great artist or con artist?
A 66-year-old woman lives in the very building in New York where her husband
was murdered nearly 20 years ago.
But far from living in a self-pitying cocoon of memories, she leads an active
life which involves travelling the world putting on concerts and exhibitions.
Yoko Ono is most famous for being married to John Lennon
Yoko Ono, best known for being the widow of former Beatle John Lennon, seems
indefatigable. After a lifetime of producing paintings, sculpture, short films
and songs, she is planning to spend the summer going round her art shows in
Europe, before beginning a new music CD in the autumn.
Yoko Ono has regularly been maligned and vilified by critics, who condemned her
art as meaningless, her films as weird and her songs as tuneless.
But recently, she has begun to enjoy a reassessment of her work in the serious
media. On Sunday, a programme on BBC Radio 3 attempts to discover whether her
art has any lasting value.
In the public mind, Yoko Ono has became the woman responsible for breaking up
the Beatles. The programme, called Yoko Ono: A Life In Flux tries to move away
from that reputation and concentrate on what motivated her creatively.
Shock tactics
Aiming to express her radical feminism in art, Yoko shocked the public with
acts such as inviting members of an audience to cut pieces from her clothing;
opening an exhibition with a canvas to be stepped on; creating a film called
Bottoms, featuring people's backsides; and in music, singing songs with titles
such as I Felt Like Smashing My Face in a Clear Glass Window.
In exclusive interviews with Radio 3, the Japanese-born artist-singer and
sculptor tries to explain her work.
"Art is a mind-game that we do to make our lives easier. If it isn't for that
it becomes superfluous," she says.
She involved herself in a range of activities for the pleasure and the
challenge it gave her: "Once something is solid, it's dead. I just like to
explore all sorts of different forms - no, explore is not even the word -
enjoy. You don't want to limit yourself to a particular form."
Music or screaming?
She still defends her famous bed-in in an Amsterdam hotel with John: "We didn't
think we were naive, we thought that we had it all figured out. Maybe we were
naive but I think that's the kind of naivety that may be necessary in life."
In the 1970s, she and John continued producing music. Critics condemned her
bizarre singing as screaming.
She says: "I was doing very musically intricate things, in terms of rhythm and
notation and how it moves. I thought it was comparable to someone like
Schoenberg in terms of the structure of the music and they didn't hear that at
all. They just said 'Yoko's screaming!'"
In the past couple of years, however, the exhibitions she has staged have been
met with critical acclaim by intellectuals who argued she had been
misunderstood and that her work deserved greater applause.
'Awful art'
But there are still some who insist that any appreciation of her work is a case
of the Emperor's New Clothes - there is no substance involved, but in a new era
of political correctness, it takes a brave soul to say so.
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."
Mr Sewell says it was easy to become famous in New York in the 1960s by mixing
with the right people, and that Yoko managed to keep a kind of mythology about
her.
But he does not believe she has deliberately set out to the public into
believing she was talented: "There is a point at which people begin to believe
in their mythology," he says.
Artists 'are like trees'
After John's murder, Yoko Ono used the themes of death and mortality, such as
an exhibition of coffins with trees where the heads should be.
"I could say that yes, there were a lot of ups and downs and a lot of hurt in
my life, but in hindsight, it was a kind of education that I had to go through.
From here on, I would like to learn without getting too hurt."
Yoko says: "I feel that my work is not in vain, that it does have a place in
society, even though it may not be considered that it has a place in society -
it doesn't matter.
"People don't remember each tree in a park but all of us benefit from the
trees. And in a way artists are like trees in a park."
A Life In Flux hears from other critics, who variously talk of her joining an
era of "conceptual art", who defend her singing as having a "post-blues
controlled pitch" and who argue that she brought innovative aesthetic
techniques to a mass audience.
But programme producer Lance Dann denies any pretentiousness, pointing out that
the programme charts Yoko's work in a chronological way.
"It moves swiftly enough that if there's something difficult to understand the
story moves on quickly.
"She works in an obscure form but the whole Brit-art scene of today was
influenced by the 60s.
"I don't know whether she's a great artist but whether she is or not, she's an
important figure."
Yoko Ono: A Life In Flux can be heard on BBC Radio 3 at 1745BST on Sunday.
© BBC
DonRe...@webtv.net
tomorrow. Pass me the sports section, please. I want to see if Garth
Brooks got a hit yet.
Douglas North
TALENTED! One of my favorite albums of all time is Aproximately Infinite
Universe. It never gets old!
Douglas
DonRe...@webtv.net
accounts
w...@tiac.net
but she was a dramatic influence on john.
not just in his song style, but his
way of thinking.
so, besides clearing out bank accounts,
as you suggest, give the woman credit
for her worth, both mental and spirtual.
wendy
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toelennon
Yes, and what happend when she influenced John!? John went weird, sure he wrote some
of the Beatles best ever songs after he met her, but this sadly helped split them
apart. John's solo career was great, although it can't compare (or any other
band/singer) to what The Beatles acheived. Also, Yoko was a bad musician....very bad.
I have never seen her art but I know all of the most famous critics hate it. She
thinks the world will love her just because she was married to a Beatle. She was good
at making money off his name. Just look at £50 for the JLA. If she really loved John &
his fans, maybe she could of lowered the price putting it in reach of the poorer
Lennon fans (she&John actively supported working class people). Insted she made a tidy
little(mega-huge) profit. Defenitley power to the people. ho-hum. She was defenitly a
hanger-on. It's all that she'll ever be too.
Toelennon
Tom
>John's solo career was great, although it can't compare (or any other
>band/singer) to what The Beatles acheived. Also, Yoko was a bad
musician....very bad.
You say that, Ornette Coleman, Elvis Costello and Nile Rogers say
differently.
>I have never seen her art but I know all of the most famous critics hate
it.
Wrong.
scotty fishnetr
fairy tales and feeding John's frikin nervous break down with visions of
grandure. She used every man ever involved with her for her own promotion of
her mostly crap art !! I'm trying to be nice about this too !
scotty fishnetr
Gallard
Yoko helped get Johns creative juices going in the direction of things like Rev #9 but
eventually she helped make it possible for John to
imagine life outside of being a Beatle.
As to her dealings after his death I really dont have a opinion.
She doesnt seem to be any worse than other people who control
fortunes.
Tom
>I fiqure she just stole John away from Paul
What is this? Rec. erotic.fantasies.beatles?
As far as I know John and Paul were just good friends.
Rob Hughes
On Sun, 28 Mar 1999, Tom wrote:
> You say that, Ornette Coleman, Elvis Costello and Nile Rogers say
> differently.
Elvis' liner notes in the Ryko reissue of the album that includes his
Walking On Thin Ice cover is a little cagey as to his relation to Yoko's
music. I seem to recall that he says something to the effect that she (or
her people) had approached him to ask him to do a cover, whereas he was
hardly familiar with her work at that time. Though, fwiw, he did in fact
do the cover, so it might be infered that he liked at least that song.
-Rob Hughes
DavisK
You're saying that John was doped up and brainwashed by Yoko so that she could use him like a puppet for her own personal greed - that's pretty dumb. John was a man, and he could think for himself. If he hooked up with Yoko, it's because he was attracted to her on a physical and emotional level - not because he was some Manchurian Candidate or something.
Personally, I kind of wish that Yoko had not done performances during John's concerts, even though he most likely wanted her to. I think the concert-goers were there to see John, and throwing Yoko in the mix only made them hate her more. If she had been a separate entity (i.e. had only done her music in her own concerts) then she probably would have gotten more respect than she did.
Tom
>Though, fwiw, he did in fact
>do the cover, so it might be infered that he liked at least that song.
>
too many people here would say "who?"
Eric Edward Ceresa
Rob Hughes <rhu...@emory.edu> wrote:
>
>On Sun, 28 Mar 1999, Tom wrote:
>> You say that, Ornette Coleman, Elvis Costello and Nile Rogers say
>> differently.
>
>Elvis' liner notes in the Ryko reissue of the album that includes his
>Walking On Thin Ice cover is a little cagey as to his relation to Yoko's
>music. I seem to recall that he says something to the effect that she (or
>her people) had approached him to ask him to do a cover, whereas he was
>hardly familiar with her work at that time. Though, fwiw, he did in fact
>do the cover, so it might be infered that he liked at least that song.
>
>-Rob Hughes
>
Got this in front of me. He says, "Although I would not pretend that her
records are exactly a fixture on my turntable I was happy to help complete
one of her husband's last projects which one must imagine was conceived
out of love."
I took this to mean that he was, as gently as possible, saying that her
records are horrible and he did the cover out of respect for Lennon. Of
course, I could be wrong. Mr. Costello's version, while not the best
song on that album, is a quantum leap above the original, which proves
it wasn't the song but the performance that made the original
unlistenable. As I said, I could be wrong, but I have too high a regard
for Elvis Costello's taste in music to believe that he'd think
differently.
By the way, if anyone's interested, the EC album in question is "Punch
the Clock."
Rob Hughes
> No real reason I picked him, except that I was afraid if I said Lenny Kaye,
> too many people here would say "who?"
Lenny Kaye, ah yes. Seems to me he shares some songwriting credits with
Ginsberg/McCartney/Glass on "Ballad of the Skeletons." I also seem to
recall him saying some nice things about Paul for some special or other.
I'm sure there are other nuggets of information one might give about the
celebrated Mr Kaye, but those two facts seemed especially germaine.
Rob Hughes
CaroJ11
We've now read E.C's remarks, but this sentence prompts me to ask for
information I've been curious about for years.
For all the critically-acclaimed avant-garde composers Yoko so often mentions
as respecters of her musical or artistic talent, I've never read any
independent praise from same. I HAVE read praise from both the awed younger
generation and second-hand commentary that could be attributed to Yoko's own
press packet, but no first-hand independent quotes. Of course there's
complimentary commentary from close friends or admirers of John's, but this
isn't the same. Might you provide some?
What has Ornette Coleman actually said about her? Not from her sources, but
from his. What about other avante-garde composers of equal stature? To my
knowledge she was little more than a public joke during her NYC
starving-artist days. Can you offer differing information that doesn't come
either directly or indirectly from Ono herself? ---CarolJ
Tom
>Lenny Kaye, ah yes. Seems to me he shares some songwriting credits with
>Ginsberg/McCartney/Glass on "Ballad of the Skeletons." I also seem to
>recall him saying some nice things about Paul for some special or other.
>I'm sure there are other nuggets of information one might give about the
>celebrated Mr Kaye, but those two facts seemed especially germaine.
He was also interviewed for the Compleat Beatles.
Tom
>What has Ornette Coleman actually said about her? Not from her sources, but
>from his. What about other avante-garde composers of equal stature? To my
>knowledge she was little more than a public joke during her NYC
>starving-artist days. Can you offer differing information that doesn't come
>either directly or indirectly from Ono herself?
I'm really not one for finding quotes and the ones I do find, I usually
forget quickly. The reason I named Ornette Coleman and John Cage is because
of their actions. They both chose to work with her. It's reasonable to
assume that if they considered her to be a public joke, they wouldn't have
done that. As far as I know, Lenny Kaye has never mentioned her music
publically, but he did go to a recent concert and enjoyed it.
When you say "considered a public joke" the guestion that begs is "by whom?"
She was an experimental artist, for the most part, they are considered
public jokes in more mainstream circles. Someone posted early sixties
reviews of her to the Ono-list recently. The results were what you'd expect.
The Village Voice thought that she was fantastic, the NY Times didn't get
it. If I still have them, I'll send them to you.
You also mentioned the awed younger generation. Don't discount them. Perhaps
she really was ahead of her time and it took 30 years for the rest of the
world to catch up. Gallery owners hated Van Gogh and he only sold 3
paintings when he was alive, to quote Paul McCartney.
A better criterion might be, what did her contemporaries think of her.
Maciunas liked her work, Charlotte Moormann performed Bag Piece in the mid
sixties and Cut Piece in the eighties. (True, those aren't musical pieces,
unless you accept the fluxus/cage definition of music, but her music and art
weren't as easily seperable as they later became) While I can't say what
their motivations were, both Al Hansen and John Cage dedicated pieces to her
(Yoko Ono Piano Drop and 0'0", which was also dedicated to Yoko's first
husband.)
Friends of John's could have reasons besides the quality of the music for
defending her, I agree, so I don't know if this means anything but last year
at Beatlefest, Klaus Voormann made a point of defending her music and saying
that he enjoyed it.
CaroJ11
True. That's what I was going by. Thanks Tom! Illuminating post! --CarolJ