Ob-la-di Ob-la-dart FACING IT HEAD ON
Biggest show of Yoko’s work comes to Europe King is ‘keen to be seen’ in capital amid health fight
THE artwork credited with bringing John Lennon and Yoko Ono together has pride of place in a new exhibition dedicated to her.
The Tate Modern’s retrospective is the largest ever show of the Japanese artist’s work in Europe , although Yoko is sadly too frail to attend in person.
Works on show include Ceiling Painting/yes
Painting from 1966, which is one of the reasons John became fascinated by Yoko.
In the original work you climb a stepladder and hold a magnifying glass to the ceiling to see the word “Yes” written in tiny letters.
John saw it at Yoko’s London show that year, calling it “so positive”. He added: “I felt relieved. It’s a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn’t say ‘No’ or ‘F*** you’ or something, it said ‘Yes’.” The Beatle then made efforts to meet the artist and he and Yoko began their love affair which lasted until he was assassinated in 1980 in New York, aged 40.
The pair made music and art together, much of it asking for peace and urging that “War is
Over: If you want it”. In 2017 she finally received a writer’s credit for her inspiration and influence on John’s iconic 1971 song Imagine.
Yoko turns 91 this Sunday and is said to be living a “peaceful life” on the 600-acre farm she and John bought near Franklin, New York, in 1978.
She did not attend yesterday’s press launch of the exhibition at the renowned London gallery.
In case you wondered what her artwork was all about, Tate director Karin Hindsbo said of it: “We offer our deepest and most heartfelt gratitude to Yoko Ono, for the gift of her expansive and transformative practice, which continues to resonate with and unite people around the world, and which, like a wish or a whisper, touches each one of us.”
Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind is at the Tate Modern from tomorrow until September 1.
great outpouring of affection for him as he embarks upon his treatment.”
The British Queen has been taking on a packed diary of engagements and last week said Charles was doing “extremely well under the circumstances”.
Camilla has four public jobs this week, as the Prince of Wales takes half-term off to spend with his family. The Princess of
Wales remains on leave following an abdominal operation last month.
At her first public engagement at Salisbury Cathedral since her husband’s diagnosis, Camilla said he had been “very touched” by all the messages of support he has received from the public.
Charles’s diagnosis followed three nights in a private London hospital where he was treated for an enlarged prostate. The Prince of Wales may step in to represent his father at events.
It has been reported William and his family are spending half-term at their Norfolk home Anmer Hall, which is on the King’s Sandringham estate.