Even if she had never married her famous husband, even if she had never become the bane of rabid Beatlemaniacs everywhere, she still would have stunned the world with her mad imagination, her nutty artist’s eye.
Yoko Ono, whose one-woman show at MoMA opens next week, was an indelible presence on the avant-garde scene long before she met John Lennon. Born in Tokyo in 1933 to a wealthy family, she grew up around the world, attended Sarah Lawrence College, and fell in with a bunch of radicals, hipsters, and artists—the beatniks of the late fifties.
She became an active member of the art movement Fluxus, a loose conglomeration of freewheeling renegades. Her own work was wildly conceptual and experimental: “Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity,” she once said. In 1964’s Cut Piece, she invited audiences to scissor the clothing from her body. In Painting To Be Stepped On, a piece of canvas thrown on the floor was transformed into art by the accumulation of footprints. “A lot of things have been thrown at me in life, and I've got through it all without a rule book, taking it one day at a time,” she reflected.
Through the decades, she has kept her own inimitable sense of personal style. For her wedding to John she wore a tiered crepe mini, kneesocks, sneakers, and a floppy sunhat. During their infamous Bed-Ins, she and her groovy spouse both sported pale pajamas. Today, she is often seen with her trademark derby hat; at over 80, she can still rock a biker jacket.
Asked about her distinctive looks, she once demured. “My beauty secret is . . . nothing! I don't drink too much water. I don't eat very well. Sometimes I cheat and grab some chocolate.”
