StrawberryShorty
Dec 08, 2002, 02:43 PM
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5634799%255E2902,00.html
I can't be an artist. I'm a Beatle," John Lennon protested.
Being bigger than Jesus Christ obviously had its limitations. But Yoko Ono was insistent. He wasn't a Beatle to her. He needn't be to anyone else.
Yoko told Lennon that he should take his art seriously, at least as seriously as Lennon took anything.
He had half-heartedly studied at the Liverpool Art College. But hearing Elvis's Heartbreak Hotel there one afternoon changed his life. And all of ours.
However, art -- his drawings, paintings, hand-written lyrics -- was a constant in his life.
"He was an art student before he was a rocker," Yoko said from New York this week. "When I met him he was like a normal artist, you know, we talked about art and Magritte and Van Gogh.
"One day he said to me that it was every art student's dream to have a one-man show. So I said 'why don't you do it?'
"He said, 'I can't, because I'm a Beatle'.
"I said, 'What's wrong with that?'."
A show was organised.
"It was ignored by the critics and friends didn't come. And it was a very good show," Yoko said.
An emboldened Lennon pushed ahead and a second exhibition attracted somewhat greater interest.
"It was promptly confiscated by Scotland Yard," Yoko recalled of the infamous erotic lithographs deemed pornographic.
"He had a very hard time showing his works. He would have loved to have seen all these drawing of his shown," she said of the collection, "Imagine: The Art of John Lennon", which is showing at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne from Wednesday to Sunday.
Yoko was the subject of much of Lennon's output after they met at London's Indica Gallery in 1966. He painted her, drew her and wrote love songs to her in praise of one of the towering love stories of the 20th century. How does that feel?
"I am very honoured," she said.
She is particularly proud of Imagine which, but for Bohemian Rhapsody, would have won an end-of-millennium poll for the best song.
Lennon based his best known song on Grapefruit, a simple book in which Yoko summoned readers to imagine a series of events: "Imagine a thousand suns in the sky at the same time." The book, published in 1964, came with the instruction to burn it after reading it.
Lennon said it was the best book he had ever burned.
"More than ever, that song (Imagine) is very appropriate," Yoko said of the enduring classic, Lennon's original lyrics to which will be on display this week.
"It has achieved something. People do know the song and the lyrics.
"Amnesty International is asking children of different countries to sing (it) and they are surprised that all the children -- around four or five years old -- know the lyrics.
"I'm surprised, too. Isn't that beautiful?"
So what should a younger generation be told of the author of those words? "That he was a Beatle, too."
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Very Beautiful, INDEED! images/icons/smile.gif
I can't be an artist. I'm a Beatle," John Lennon protested.
Being bigger than Jesus Christ obviously had its limitations. But Yoko Ono was insistent. He wasn't a Beatle to her. He needn't be to anyone else.
Yoko told Lennon that he should take his art seriously, at least as seriously as Lennon took anything.
He had half-heartedly studied at the Liverpool Art College. But hearing Elvis's Heartbreak Hotel there one afternoon changed his life. And all of ours.
However, art -- his drawings, paintings, hand-written lyrics -- was a constant in his life.
"He was an art student before he was a rocker," Yoko said from New York this week. "When I met him he was like a normal artist, you know, we talked about art and Magritte and Van Gogh.
"One day he said to me that it was every art student's dream to have a one-man show. So I said 'why don't you do it?'
"He said, 'I can't, because I'm a Beatle'.
"I said, 'What's wrong with that?'."
A show was organised.
"It was ignored by the critics and friends didn't come. And it was a very good show," Yoko said.
An emboldened Lennon pushed ahead and a second exhibition attracted somewhat greater interest.
"It was promptly confiscated by Scotland Yard," Yoko recalled of the infamous erotic lithographs deemed pornographic.
"He had a very hard time showing his works. He would have loved to have seen all these drawing of his shown," she said of the collection, "Imagine: The Art of John Lennon", which is showing at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne from Wednesday to Sunday.
Yoko was the subject of much of Lennon's output after they met at London's Indica Gallery in 1966. He painted her, drew her and wrote love songs to her in praise of one of the towering love stories of the 20th century. How does that feel?
"I am very honoured," she said.
She is particularly proud of Imagine which, but for Bohemian Rhapsody, would have won an end-of-millennium poll for the best song.
Lennon based his best known song on Grapefruit, a simple book in which Yoko summoned readers to imagine a series of events: "Imagine a thousand suns in the sky at the same time." The book, published in 1964, came with the instruction to burn it after reading it.
Lennon said it was the best book he had ever burned.
"More than ever, that song (Imagine) is very appropriate," Yoko said of the enduring classic, Lennon's original lyrics to which will be on display this week.
"It has achieved something. People do know the song and the lyrics.
"Amnesty International is asking children of different countries to sing (it) and they are surprised that all the children -- around four or five years old -- know the lyrics.
"I'm surprised, too. Isn't that beautiful?"
So what should a younger generation be told of the author of those words? "That he was a Beatle, too."
-------------
Very Beautiful, INDEED! images/icons/smile.gif