(News Release from Walker Art Center)
(Half-A-Room, 1967) (View from Israel Art Museum 2000)
(Picture Courtesy Walker Art Center) (C)Yoko Ono
In her prolific career, avant-garde artist Yoko Ono has embraced a wide range of media, defying traditional boundaries and creating new forms of artistic expression. YES YOKO ONO, the artist's first major American retrospective, makes its first stop on a national tour at the walker Art Center March 10-June 17. Organized by Japan Society, New York, where it premiered to wide critical acclaim in October 2000, the exhibition features approximately 150 works from 1960 to the present, with a focus on Ono's early period, and includes objects and installations; language-based works such as instruction pieces and scores; film and video; music; and performance art. YES YOKO ONO is curated by Alexandra Munroe, Director, Japan Society Gallery, in consulation with Fluxus scholar Jon Hendricks.
Among the related events planned in conjunction with the exhibition are a "Late Night After Hours Preview Party" on Friday, March 9; "An Afternoon With Yoko" on Saturday, March 10 (sold out); and a talk by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth on Sunday, April 8.
YES YOKO ONO - Exhibition Title Origin
The exhibition title refers to the object known as Ceiling Painting (Yes Painting), an important work included in Ono's historic 1966 show at London's Indica Gallery. Viewers were invited to climb a white ladder, where, at the top, a magnifying glass, attached by a chain, hung from a framed sheet of paper that was suspended from the ceiling. Using the glass, the viewer discovered a tiny text on the sheet - the single word "YES." It was through this work that Ono met her future husband and longtime collaborator, John Lennon. He later remarked: "It's a great relief when you get up the ladder and look through the spyglass and it doesn't say no..it says YES." That note of hope, as well as the work's interactive aspect, have been leitmotifs in Ono's production since the 1950s that continue to inform her work today.
THE EXHIBIT:
The exhibit is presented in five sections:
(1)The Early Instructions, which are conceptual paintings, works on paper and printed matter; (2) Early Objects; (3)Events, Performance and Films; (4) The Peace Movement and Other Collaborations with John Lennon, including their honeymoon Bed-In (1969) and the billboard campaign War Is Over! If You Want It (1969); and (5) Recent Work, including the interactive installations, Play It By Trust (the all-white chess set), Wish Piece (add your own wish), and Telephone Piece (a phone in the galleries which Yoko will call and talk to the lucky person who picks up the receiver.)
More YES Yoko Ono News:
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Events Opening Weekend
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Walker Center News
Japan Society News Release
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