Written & Photographed by Kenn Sava

A new occasional series. Last year, I ran “Words to Live By By Man Ray,” which featured selections from the wonderful book, “Man Ray: Writings on Art,” by this unique, multitalented Artist. This year, I’m going to feature examples from the book, “Yoko Ono: Lumiere de L’aube,” the catalog for a 2016 retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Lyon (macLYON), France, newly released in the USA. This is the most up to date and comprehensive look at Yoko Ono’s multifaceted career yet released. As such, it’s a terrific place to meditate on her achievement. 

A large and important 50+ year oeuvre deserves a beautiful, large book. Mind the binding, though.

As time has gone on, I’ve gotten further and further away from the Music side of my passion in these pages, but it doesn’t take any Musical background to know that Yoko Ono was (and might still be in some quarters) one of the most loathed figures in the entire history of popular Music since her name first became well known in the late 1960’s, as the partner of John Lennon. As the world was to find out over these intervening 50 years, NOTHING stops her. Now, as we approach the 60 year mark of her career, as the millennium has progressed, the public has been coming around to appreciating her Art and her Music.

I’ve made no secret of my admiration for Yoko in these pages. I realize that her Music is a tough nut for many to crack, but even if you want to leave that side of her work aside, in my view, her Art (and total achievement) remains under appreciated.

How is this possible, Nighthawk? She’s incredibly famous, incredibly rich (I imagine), a legend, and has been the subject of the traveling retrospective, “YES Yoko Ono” which toured the USA and Japan in 2000-01, and at MoMA, where she was only the 10th woman given a one-woman show by 2015¹, as well as having numerous gallery shows. What I’m talking about is her accomplishment. Her place in the history of the Art of our time.  

Yoko Ono is one of the most important Artists of the second half of the 20th Century. Her accomplishment is staggering, as Yoko Ono: Lumiere de L’aube, shows. Yes, staggering. And, wonderful…beautiful. As time goes on, I firmly believe her stock is only going to rise in the eyes of “Art History.”

I’m going to delve into exactly what I mean and attempt to back this big statement up with examples in future installments, but for this one, I want to start at the beginning…the first page in this huge 500 page, 10 pound book, who’s title, “Lumiere de L’aube,” translates as “Light of Dawn.”

Yoko Ono, age 2, with her father, Yeisuke, and mother, Isoko, in 1935.

The book begins with Yoko’s revealing Introduction. Opposite this photo of her family  from 1935, she has written the following-

The two page Introduction by Yoko Ono in Lumiere de L’aube.

I will say for now, that if I chose one word to sum of her work, it would be “alive.” Ms. Ono’s work is, almost always, fully alive.

I wonder if ANY Art could accomplish, or has accomplished, more than that.

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BookMarks (a series that looks at books relevant to each Post)- Yoko Ono: Lumiere de L’aube, by Thierry Raspail, was published by Somogy Art Publishers, in a bilingual English/French edition on June 1, 2018, with texts by the Artist, Annie Claustres, Mathie Copeland, Stephane Davet, Jon Hendricks, Emma Lavigne and Olivier Lussac, and countless new and historic Photos. It augments, and updates, the two prior standard references to her work, Y E S, cowritten with Alexandra Monroe (one of the chief curators of the brilliant Guggenheim Museum Chinese Contemporary Art Retrospective, 2017-18, which I wrote about here), in 2000, the catalog for her traveling retrospective that year, and Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960-1971, the catalog for her MoMA show in 2015, and supplements her own books, Grapefruit, Instruction Paintings, Memories of John Lennon, and Acorn, among them. I’d recommend her books before getting to the retrospectives. In my view, Yoko Ono: Lumiere de L’aube, is the best place to get an overview. Given its French origin, it may be hard to find. MoMA’s Bookstore is where I got my copy.

*- Soundtrack for this Post is “Born in a Prison,” by Yoko Ono, from the album John Lennon: Some Time in New York City, 1972. It includes the lyrics-

“Wood becomes a flute when it’s loved
Reach for yourself and your battered mates
Mirror becomes a razor when it’s broken
Look in the mirror and see your shattered fate.”*

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Written & photographed by Kenn Sava for nighthawknyc.com unless otherwise credited.
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