[HN Gopher] Yoko: A Biography
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Yoko: A Biography
Author : howard941
Score : 27 points
Date : 2025-04-04 18:29 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newstatesman.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newstatesman.com)
| pvg wrote:
| https://archive.is/ROQMo
| piokoch wrote:
| Typical "femme fatale", she destroyed The Beatles, she turned
| Lennon into "working class hero", who had servants and used air
| condition to lower temperature in his home, so he and Yoko could
| wear furs inside.
|
| The only worthy Lennon's post-Beatles album is Mind Games, the
| rest was a daub, with Imagine on the top of it.
| rdtsc wrote:
| > Although Ono has, for two decades, been comfortably
| rehabilitated as an artist in her own right
|
| I don't think she is a very good artist. Everyone felt they have
| to like her, and galleries brought her work in because, well, she
| is John Lennon's widow.
|
| Here is her performance art, she is screaming in a microphone
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdZ9weP5i68
|
| And some drawings https://www.moma.org/collection/works/131503
|
| It's fine, but just nothing outstanding. The article gives her
| the best description I've heard so far "ultimate professional
| widow".
| ustad wrote:
| Well, you know, I see what you're saying about Yoko - she's not
| the kind of artist that makes your jaw drop or blows your mind
| with technique. But, to me, it's not really about that. It's
| about the journey, not the destination, right? Art's all about
| the path you take, the experiences you collect, and the way you
| view the world. Yoko, for all the criticisms, has certainly led
| an interesting life, no doubt. She's been a trailblazer, or
| maybe just a wild spirit, pushing boundaries and breaking
| norms. She's had her share of ups and downs, but it's the
| living that matters. And through it all, she's remained true to
| herself. That's something to admire, even if you don't agree
| with everything she does. The destination, the fame, the
| recognition - that's all fleeting. But the journey, man, that's
| where the real magic happens.
| rdtsc wrote:
| > she's not the kind of artist that makes your jaw drop or
| blows your mind with technique.
|
| But to be displayed in MoMA she'd kind of have to be.
|
| > Art's all about the path you take, the experiences you
| collect, and the way you view the world.
|
| I guess I see your point, the fact that she is the widow is
| also part of the artist and the artwork. That's fair. But,
| I'll also say that who she is is the 90% part and the 10% is
| the art. If one anonymized her work, it would never have made
| it to those galleries or exhibits.
| fipar wrote:
| > But to be displayed in MoMA she'd kind of have to be.
|
| While I agree with you about Ono's art, I disagree on this.
| I know art is subjective, but in my times at MoMA I've
| found it bimodal: works on display there either blow ls my
| mind or I just don't feel anything about.
| brandall10 wrote:
| That's underselling her influence as an artist from her
| pre-Beatles period. She produced a handful of important
| avant-garde pieces and performances from the 60s in NYC and
| London and was a student and collaborator of John Cage, an
| extremely influential composer who has had dozens of
| exhibitions at MoMA. In fact she first met The Beatles to
| request a song manuscript for a Cage book.
|
| She was also well connected to that world (she was invited
| to join the Fluxus community and artists like Marcel
| Duchamp attended her NYC loft parties) and quite ambitious,
| so there's a non-zero chance she would have become even
| more prominent had The Beatles association never taken
| place.
|
| I have no interest in that world myself, but to say she was
| a nobody without The Beatles simply isn't true, she was
| definitely a rising star. A household name? Probably not,
| but possibly. An artist from that period that could be
| exhibited at the major international galleries, have her
| works studied in art schools? Absolutely.
| rdtsc wrote:
| Yeah. I can agree about her 60s work.
|
| However I think she would have stayed relatively obscure
| had she not become "ultimate professional widow" as the
| article put it.
| bitwize wrote:
| I don't think she broke up the Beatles, I think there was a
| clash of personalities there that wasn't tied to a specific
| relationship. She did, however, ruin what was to be a legendary
| collaboration between Lennon and Chuck Berry.
|
| She and Lennon may have been right for each other. I think they
| both reached a point of arrogance and self-indulgence that made
| them complement each other well. The difference was that Lennon
| was absurdly talented and Yoko, not so much.
|
| And that's the problem with contemporary art in her style: a
| dearth of talent and a need for attention create an urge to do
| something, anything, to stand out in some way. Great art by a
| talented artist can take you into the artist's imagination,
| expanding your perspective. Mediocre art often comes off as a
| form of trolling because the point is not to show you a rich
| new point of view but merely to challenge you, to piss you off.
| Hence the urinal exhibited as a sculpture; the banana taped to
| a wall; the scrawled instructions on how to create the piece
| exhibited instead of the piece itself, there being often no
| piece at all, just a bit of manic-pixie-dream-girl vagueness.
| ("Hide until everyone goes home. Hide until everyone forgets
| you. Hide until everyone dies.") And curators and collectors
| all standing around telling the emperor what a lovely outfit he
| has on.
| pstuart wrote:
| > She did, however, ruin what was to be a legendary
| collaboration between Lennon and Chuck Berry.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXSGm0RUDxo
| bitwize wrote:
| The withering side-eye Chuck gives to Yoko when she does
| her thing still gets me.
| v9v wrote:
| I'm not claiming to be the majority here, but I first learned
| about Yoko Ono and her work from a Fluxus artists' catalogue
| and much later found out that she was married to someone
| famous.
| rdtsc wrote:
| I remember seeing her work alongside of other artists, and
| before reading the plaque with the name, think, "meh, kind of
| underwhelming" and then seeing "oh, it's Yoko, that's why
| it's here".
| bigfishrunning wrote:
| It's unlikely that Yoko's work would have been in that
| artists' catalogue if she hadn't married John Lennon.
| zemo wrote:
| on the contrary, they met after John went to one of Yoko's
| art shows and was intrigued by her artwork; it's probably
| unlikely that Yoko would have married John if it were not
| for Yoko's work.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceiling_Painting/Yes_Painting
| fsckboy wrote:
| > _Here is her performance art, she is screaming in a
| microphone_
|
| anybody who judges an artist on the basis of one work is an
| ass. here are a number of those in a work that cleaved the art
| world into two hemispheres with a chasm between them
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CbDkRFjLAQ
|
| been a long time since I read about it, but pretty sure iirc
| those are celebs making cheeky cameos in that piece
| rdtsc wrote:
| Heh, well played. I was going to use that as an example but
| thought to keep it somewhat SFW.
|
| For anyone that's Yoko's "Film No 4 Bottoms 1966-67" which is
| exactly what it sounds like, if you'd rather not click on it.
| tossaway0 wrote:
| Here is a performance before Lennon; way better in my opinion:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU4tCw2u_hg
|
| edited with a better link.
| chongli wrote:
| She's right up there Cattelan's banana duct-taped to a wall. In
| other words, she's in that grey area where you're not sure
| whether her art is sincere or some kind of fraud.
|
| But that's par for the course with much of modern art. It's a
| vast movement occupying this Poe's Law-style zone of artistic
| ambiguity.
| rdtsc wrote:
| I think humor is common in his work and a banana taped to
| wall makes sense. I like his horse sculptures and Pope struck
| by meteorite. To me that's a whole other level than Yoko's
| work.
| chongli wrote:
| La Nona Ora at least exhibits highly realistic technique.
| There's no advanced technique with the banana. To me, that
| one is just an example of an artist trolling people.
| aylmao wrote:
| +1. To me it just seems kind of bland. I used to like her
| more and made a point of going to MoMA to see her when I
| lived in NYC, but over time she's done the opposite of "grow
| on me".
|
| I still think Grapefruit is great. Nonetheless a lot of her
| work, especially her recent work, seems kind of disconnected
| form its historical context, not very daring, deep or
| metaphorical. It doesn't really propose anything new or seem
| distinctively hers. It's almost performative, like someone
| doing conceptual, installation and performance art "as a
| brand" rather than as a means to achieve something that can't
| be achieved via other mediums.
| TomWhitwell wrote:
| Her loft series in 1960 was an amazing moment in time - La Monte
| Young, John Cage, Marcel Duchamp etc https://press.moma.org/wp-
| content/files_mf/yoko_sectiontext_...
| someone7x wrote:
| White chess is another amazing piece
|
| https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2015/07/14/notes-on-...
| szopa wrote:
| One color go is a training method used in go... I wonder if
| that was her inspiration.
| nickvec wrote:
| If you haven't seen it already, would recommend checking out Yoko
| Ono's "performance" during John Lennon and Chuck Berry's
| "Memphis, Tennessee". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXSGm0RUDxo
| riffic wrote:
| orange site, where nuance goes to die. The out-of-context clip
| isn't a referendum on her artistry; it's just bait for people
| who never engaged with her actual work.
| nickvec wrote:
| I mean, I'm not sure what other context could justify howling
| and screaming in the middle of a musical performance.
| titaphraz wrote:
| Whatever the actual work that was, the sound engineer did the
| world a favor by cutting the cord to her mic right there and
| then.
| meibo wrote:
| To contrast this, for anyone that might be interested, a well
| researched ~1:40h documentary on Yoko's impact on the Beatles
| and John's life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOABV_zgrk
| wdbbdw wrote:
| I saw her sing once with Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) playing
| guitar, and it a transcendent experience for me, personally. I'd
| heard her singing before on a recording and I'd found it
| irritating, but seeing it live was something else. So primal and
| beautiful. However, even though it brought me to literal tears,
| half of the audience were walking away and shaking their heads,
| which, I don't know, seems like a win for avant-garde art to me.
| TomMasz wrote:
| John got tired of the Beatles, his drug use made things worse.
| Paul's perfectionism did its part as well. Yoko was a
| distraction.
|
| She's a provocateur, art is the medium she uses.
| kazinator wrote:
| By the way, she is the long o Yoko.
|
| There is short o Yoko given name too; I suspect it's pretty rare.
| bloomingeek wrote:
| I've always been kind of meh on Yoko breaking up the Beatles. I
| was in junior high when it all went down, so for me there wasn't
| much info to be had to think one way or another. These artists
| live their lives like they want, as do I, so it is what it is.
| (sorry)
|
| However, I missed not having new music from them sorely! AM radio
| was the main medium and the Beatles were on a lot, which I loved.
| In a parallel universe, great bands, which I get to choose, will
| be prevented from fighting and hating each other until I've had
| enough time loving their music, which they will continue to drop,
| until an acceptable retirement age. There.
| ggm wrote:
| Peter Jackson's recovery of the footage leading to "Get Back" on
| the roof of the Apple building shows a lot more normal
| interaction between the Beatles, Linda Eastman and Yoko.
|
| If anything, Ringo is the disruptive one (albeit briefly) when
| the others ego trips get him down.
|
| Yoko was mythologised into the evil influence by fans distraught
| at the breakup of the group. Was she wierd? Sure.
|
| Was she wierder than anyone else in those times? Not really. The
| Chuck Berry gig is just a moment, it doesn't define her. The
| screaming shtick was a thing, sure.
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