From career breakthroughs to professional milestones, explore how Yoko Ono made an impact.
Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her artistic endeavors span various mediums, including performance art and filmmaking. She is best known for her avant-garde art and her marriage to John Lennon, with whom she collaborated on music and peace campaigns. Ono's work often addresses themes of feminism, peace, and social justice, and she continues to be an influential figure in contemporary art and activism.
In 1952, Yoko Ono moved to New York City to join her family and became involved in the downtown artists scene in the early 1960s.
In 1957, Yoko Ono left college and moved to New York, supporting herself through secretarial work and lessons in the traditional Japanese arts at the Japan Society.
From December 1960 through June 1961, Yoko Ono and La Monte Young held a series of avant-garde events in Ono's loft at 112 Chambers Street in downtown Manhattan, attended by artists like Marcel Duchamp and Peggy Guggenheim. Ono presented her work once during the series.
In 1960, Yoko Ono's early work was included in the retrospective, "Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960– 1971 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
From December 1960 through June 1961, Yoko Ono and La Monte Young held a series of avant-garde events in Ono's loft at 112 Chambers Street in downtown Manhattan. The series came to a close in June 1961.
In July 1961, Yoko Ono showed her instructional work again at Macunias's AG Gallery, including Painting to Be Stepped On. She showed this work and other instructional work again at Macunias's AG Gallery in July 1961.
In 1961, George Maciunas gave Yoko Ono her first solo exhibition at his AG Gallery in New York, marking a significant step in her art career. She was also invited to join Fluxus, but declined.
In 1961, Yoko Ono had her first major public performance in a concert at the Carnegie Recital Hall. This concert featured radical experimental music and performances.
In 1962, Yoko Ono is credited for the album cover art for the album Nirvana Symphony by Toshiro Mayuzumi, released by Time Records.
In 1964, Yoko Ono began her career as an experimental filmmaker, making 16 films between 1964 and 1972.
In 1964, Yoko Ono first performed "Cut Piece" at the Yamaichi Concert Hall in Kyoto, Japan, a performance art piece where she invited audience members to cut pieces of her clothing off.
In 1964, Yoko Ono's book titled Grapefruit was first published, a set of instructions through which the work of art is completed.
In 1965, Yoko Ono acted in an obscure exploitation film called Satan's Bed.
In 1965, Yoko Ono had a second engagement at the Carnegie Recital Hall, in which she debuted her performance art piece, Cut Piece.
In 1965, Yoko Ono performed "Cut Piece" at Carnegie Hall in New York.
In February 1966, a 20-piece collection conjoining short instructional texts by Ono with Maciunas' graphic illustrations was published in the No. 7 issue of the Fluxus magazine cc V TRE.
In September 1966, Yoko Ono visited London to meet artist and political activist Gustav Metzger's Destruction in Art Symposium. She was the only woman artist chosen to perform her own events.
In 1966, Yoko Ono displayed a sculptural work titled "YES" at the Indica Gallery in London, featuring viewers climbing a ladder to read the word "yes" printed on a small canvas.
In 1966, Yoko Ono performed "Cut Piece" at London's Africa Center as part of the Destruction in Art Symposium.
In 1966, Yoko Ono released a Fluxus film called No. 4, often referred to as Bottoms, which consists of close-ups of human buttocks walking on a treadmill.
In September 1967, John Lennon sponsored Yoko Ono's solo Half-A-Wind Show at Lisson Gallery in London, marking a significant step in their relationship.
The Plastic Ono Band was first conceived by Yoko Ono in 1967 as an idea for an art exhibition in Berlin, evolving from her Fluxus concept.
In May 1968, while his wife was away, John Lennon invited Yoko Ono to visit, and they spent the night recording avant-garde tape loops, leading to their first collaborative album, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins.
On December 12, 1968, John Lennon and Yoko Ono participated in the BBC documentary about The Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus. Lennon performed his Beatles composition "Yer Blues" with an improvised vocal performance by Ono rounding out the set.
In 1968, John Lennon and Yoko Ono began crediting their work to The Plastic Ono Band, leading to various art exhibitions, concerts, and experimental music projects.
In 1968, John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their series of avant-garde recordings with Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins and contributed to The Beatles' "White Album," with Ono adding vocals to "Birthday" and "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill."
In September 6, 2016, Secretly Canadian announced that they would be re-issuing 11 of Ono's albums from 1968 to 1985; Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins through Starpeace.
In March 1969, Yoko Ono and John Lennon held a "Bed-in for Peace" in their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel, promoting world peace by wearing pajamas and inviting visitors and press.
On March 20, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married in Gibraltar and spent their honeymoon in Amsterdam campaigning with a week-long bed-in for peace.
In June 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were involved in a car crash during the recording of Abbey Road. Following the accident, a bed with a microphone was set up in the studio for Ono to provide artistic input on the album. This constant presence of Ono in the studio reportedly strained Lennon's relationships with the other Beatles, leading to friction within the band. There was also an incident of Ono taking George Harrison's chocolate digestive biscuits without asking.
In July 1969, John Lennon's first solo single, "Give Peace a Chance", backed by Yoko Ono's "Remember Love", was released and credited to the Plastic Ono Band.
In December 1969, Yoko Ono and John Lennon continued their message of peace with billboards in 12 major world cities reading "WAR IS OVER! If You Want It – Happy Christmas from John & Yoko".
In 1969, Yoko Ono began her career in popular music and formed the Plastic Ono Band with John Lennon, producing a number of avant-garde music albums in the 1970s.
In 1969, Yoko Ono married English musician John Lennon of the Beatles and began a career in popular music by forming the Plastic Ono Band with Lennon. They used their honeymoon as a stage for public protests against the Vietnam War with what they called a bed-in.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono's album Live Peace in Toronto 1969 featuring Ono's song "Don't Worry, Kyoko" was released in 1969.
In 1970, Yoko Ono released her first solo album, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, as a companion piece to John Lennon's album of the same name.
Yoko Ono collaborated with John Lennon on the film Fly in 1970.
On June 5, 1971, Yoko Ono joined John Lennon in performing with Frank Zappa at the Fillmore.
In 1971, Simon & Schuster published Yoko Ono's Grapefruit, distributing it widely.
In 1971, Yoko Ono's early work was included in the retrospective, "Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960– 1971 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
In 1971, Yoko Ono's highly publicized retrospective exhibition, This Is Not Here, was held at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York. It was nearly closed when excited Beatles fans besieged it, breaking art pieces and flooding the toilets.
In 1971, the soundtrack of the film Fly (1970) appeared on her album Fly.
In 1972, Yoko Ono released her album Approximately Infinite Universe, which included the song "Death of Samantha".
In 1972, Yoko Ono was featured in Mary Beth Edelson's 'Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper,' a feminist artwork appropriating Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper.' This piece, with heads of notable women artists collaged over Christ and his apostles, became an iconic image of the feminist art movement.
Originally a protest song about the Vietnam War, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, was released in the UK in 1972, after being delayed, and has since become a Christmas standard.
Yoko Ono made 16 films between 1964 and 1972.
In 1973, Yoko Ono recorded the single "Joseijoi Banzai, Parts 1 and 2" with the Plastic Ono Band and Elephants Memory, releasing it only in Japan, and signaling a new musical direction cheering feminism.
In 1973, the album Feeling the Space was released by Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
In 1974, Yoko Ono had "lost weekend" sessions, of which previously unreleased material was released in 1992.
On November 17, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono released the album Double Fantasy, which initially received tepid reviews.
In 1980, Yoko Ono achieved commercial and critical success with the chart-topping album Double Fantasy, a collaboration with John Lennon that was released three weeks before his murder and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
In early 1980, John Lennon heard the B-52's' "Rock Lobster" and, reminded of Yoko Ono's musical style, began collaborating with her again, leading to the album Double Fantasy.
In 1981, Yoko Ono released the album Season of Glass, featuring a controversial cover photo of John Lennon's glasses. The album received favorable reviews and reflected the public's mood after Lennon's assassination.
In 1982, Yoko Ono released the album It's Alright, with a cover featuring Ono and a ghost of Lennon. The single "Never Say Goodbye" achieved minor success.
In 1984, the tribute album Every Man Has a Woman, featuring various artists performing Ono's songs, was released. Also in 1984, Ono and Lennon's final album, Milk and Honey, was released.
On October 9, 1985, the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park, funded by Yoko Ono, was officially dedicated on what would have been John Lennon's 45th birthday.
In September 6, 2016, Secretly Canadian announced that they would be re-issuing 11 of Ono's albums from 1968 to 1985; Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins through Starpeace.
In 1986, Yoko Ono embarked on a goodwill world tour for Starpeace, focusing on Eastern European countries.
In 1989, Yoko Ono had a major exhibition, Yoko Ono: Objects, Films retrospective at the Whitney.
In 1989, a retrospective at a Whitney Museum branch helped to improve public appreciation of Yoko Ono's work.
In 1992, Yoko Ono signed with Rykodisc and released the six-disc box set Onobox, which included remastered highlights from her solo albums and previously unreleased material.
In 1992, the release of the six-disc box set Onobox further contributed to the public's appreciation of Yoko Ono's work.
In 1994, Yoko Ono produced her own off-Broadway musical entitled New York Rock, which featured Broadway renditions of her songs.
In 1995, Yoko Ono released Rising, a collaboration with her son Sean and his band Ima. This release was followed by a world tour through Europe, Japan, and the United States.
In 1995, after the Beatles released John Lennon's "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" with demos provided by Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney and his family collaborated with Ono and Sean Lennon to create the song "Hiroshima Sky Is Always Blue", commemorating the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Ono compared Lennon to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and McCartney to Antonio Salieri, which angered McCartney's wife, Linda.
Yoko Ono released the song "Talking to the Universe" in 1995.
Due to the death of The Rolling Stones' founding member Brian Jones a few months after filming, The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, in which John Lennon and Yoko Ono participated on December 12, 1968, was not released until 1996.
In 1996, the watch manufacturing company Swatch produced a limited edition watch that commemorated Yoko Ono's 1966 film No. 4.
Yoko Ono's 1996 Wish Piece had the following instructions: Write a wish on a piece of paper, Fold it and tie it around a branch of the tree, Ask your friend to do the same, Keep wishing until the branches are covered with wishes.
In 1997, Rykodisc reissued Yoko Ono's catalog of solo recordings on CD. In the same year, Ono and the BMI Foundation established the John Lennon Scholarships to honor Lennon's memory.
In 1998, on the John Lennon anthology, Lennon Legend, the composer credit for "Give Peace a Chance" was changed to "John Lennon" from "Lennon-McCartney", even though Lennon wrote the song during his time with the Beatles. Lennon later regretted not giving Yoko Ono co-writing credit for her contribution.
In 1999, following the Columbine High School massacre, Yoko Ono paid for billboards in New York City and Los Angeles displaying an image of John Lennon's blood-splashed spectacles.
In 2000, Simon & Schuster reprinted Yoko Ono's Grapefruit.
In 2000, Yoko Ono founded the John Lennon Museum in Saitama, Japan, which housed over 130 pieces of Lennon and Beatles memorabilia from her private collection.
In 2001, Y E S YOKO ONO, a 40-year retrospective of Ono's work, received the International Association of Art Critics USA Award for Best Museum Show Originating in New York City. Also in 2001, she received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Liverpool University.
In 2001, Yoko Ono released her feminist concept album, Blueprint for a Sunrise. A month after the 9/11 attacks, she organized "Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music" to raise money for relief efforts.
In 2001, a retrospective of Yoko Ono's artwork was presented at the Japan Society in New York City.
In 2002, Yoko Ono inaugurated a biennial $50,000 LennonOno Grant for Peace, demonstrating her commitment to peace and philanthropy.
In 2002, Yoko Ono inaugurated the LennonOno Grant for Peace, awarding $50,000 in prize money to artists living "in regions of conflict" and installed a billboard in Piccadilly Circus with a line from Lennon's "Imagine": "Imagine all the people living life in peace."
In April 2003, Yoko Ono's Walking on Thin Ice (Remixes) reached number 1 on Billboard's Dance/Club Play chart, giving Ono her first no. 1 hit.
In 2003, Yoko Ono reprised her performance art piece "Cut Piece" in Paris, hoping to show the need for trust during the period between the US and France.
On Valentine's Day in 2003, on the eve of the Iraqi invasion, Yoko Ono contacted Andrew and Christine Gale, who were holding a love-in protest in Addingham, West Yorkshire, offering her support.
In March 2004, the ICA London, showed most of Yoko Ono's films from her early period in their exhibition, The Rare Films of Yoko Ono.
In November 2004, Yoko Ono had her second number 1 hit on Billboard's Dance/Club Play chart with "Everyman... Everywoman...", a reworking of her song "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him".
In 2004, Yoko Ono installed "My Mummy Was Beautiful" during the Liverpool Biennial, displaying images of a woman's naked breast and vulva to represent a baby's innocent view of its mother's body, dedicating it to John Lennon's mother.
In 2004, Yoko Ono remade her song "Everyman..... Everywoman....." to support same-sex marriage, releasing remixes including "Every Man Has a Man Who Loves Him" and "Every Woman Has a Woman Who Loves Her".
At the 2005 Q Awards, while accepting an award, Yoko Ono shared that John Lennon had felt insecure about his songwriting. She reassured him of his talent as a songwriter and singer, also stating that other musicians may be nervous about covering his songs.
In 2006, Yoko Ono performed at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, reading a poem calling for world peace as an introduction to Peter Gabriel's performance of "Imagine".
In February 2007, Yoko Ono released Yes, I'm a Witch, a compilation of remixes and covers of her songs by various artists.
On July 14, 2007, Yoko Ono headlined the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, performing a set that combined music and performance art.
In January 2008, Yoko Ono's "No No No" reached number 1 on the Dance/Club Play chart.
In 2008, Yoko Ono returned to Liverpool for the Liverpool Biennial, where she unveiled Sky Ladders in the ruins of Church of St Luke.
In 2008, retrospectives of Yoko Ono's artwork were presented in Bielefeld, Germany, and the UK.
In May 2009, Yoko Ono designed a T-shirt for the Fashion Against AIDS campaign, featuring the statement "Imagine Peace" in 21 languages.
On June 1, 2009, Yoko Ono appeared onstage with Olivia Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr at Microsoft's E3 Expo press conference to promote The Beatles: Rock Band video game.
In June 2009, at the age of 76, Yoko Ono achieved her fifth number 1 hit on the Dance/Club Play chart with "I'm Not Getting Enough".
In 2009, Yoko Ono recorded Between My Head and the Sky, her first album released as "Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band" since 1973.
In 2009, Yoko Ono showed a selection of new and old work as part of her show "Anton's Memory" in Venice, Italy. She also received a Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement from the Venice Biennale.
Yoko Ono was given a Congressional citation from the Philippines for her monetary aid to the victims of typhoon Pablo, as well as her donation to disaster relief efforts after typhoon Ondoy in 2009 and assistance of Filipino schoolchildren.
On February 16, 2010, Sean Lennon organized a concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music called "We Are Plastic Ono Band", at which Yoko performed her music with Sean and other musicians.
On April 1, 2010, Yoko Ono was named the first "Global Autism Ambassador" by the Autism Speaks organization for her artwork created the year before for autism awareness.
In April 2010, RCRD LBL made available free downloads of Junior Boys' mix of "I'm Not Getting Enough", originally released 10 years prior on Blueprint for a Sunrise.
In July 2010, Yoko Ono's Wish Tree installation was established in the Sculpture Garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, attracting contributions from all over the world.
On February 18, 2011, her 78th birthday, Yoko Ono placed a full-page advert in the UK newspaper Metro for "Imagine Peace 2011", inviting people to think of and wish for peace.
In July 2011, Yoko Ono visited Japan to support earthquake and tsunami victims and promote tourism. She gave a lecture and performance called "The Road of Hope" at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum and painted "Dream" to raise funds for the Rainbow House.
In August 2011, Yoko Ono made the documentary film about the Bed-ins, Bed Peace, available for free on YouTube and as part of her website "Imagine Peace".
Imagine Peace was installed in Houston in 2011 through the Deborah Colton Gallery.
In January 2012, a Ralphi Rosario mix of Yoko Ono's 1995 song "Talking to the Universe" became her seventh consecutive No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.
In August 2012, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon created the Artists Against Fracking group with Mark Ruffalo to protest against hydraulic fracturing.
In 2012, Paul McCartney stated that he did not blame Yoko Ono for the breakup of the Beatles and acknowledged her inspiration for much of John Lennon's post-Beatles work.
In 2012, Yoko Ono held a major exhibition of her work To The Light at the Serpentine Galleries, London. She also won the 2012 Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Austria's highest award for applied contemporary art.
In 2012, Yoko Ono received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award and co-founded the group Artists Against Fracking, highlighting her continued activism and advocacy for human rights and environmental causes.
In January 2013, Yoko Ono, along with Sean Lennon and Susan Sarandon, protested against hydraulic fracturing in rural Pennsylvania under the banner of Artists Against Fracking.
In February 2013, coinciding with her 80th birthday, the largest retrospective of Yoko Ono's work, Half-a-Wind Show, opened at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and traveled to various museums.
In June 2013, Yoko Ono curated the Meltdown festival in London, where she played two concerts: one with the Plastic Ono Band, and the second on backing vocals during Siouxsie Sioux's rendition of "Walking on Thin Ice" at the Double Fantasy show.
In July 2013, Yoko Ono released a sequel to Grapefruit, another book of instructions titled Acorn.
In November 2013, Yoko Ono's online video for "Bad Dancer", featuring several guests, was released and well-received by the press.
On November 24, 2013, the Personal Structures exhibition, organized by Global Art Affairs, was on view at the European Cultural Centre's Palazzo Bembo, featuring Ono's piece "Arising in Venice."
In 2013, retrospectives of Yoko Ono's artwork were presented in Frankfurt and Bilbao, Spain.
In 2013, the Canadian singer Peaches reprised Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece" at the Meltdown festival in London, which Ono curated.
In 2014 Yoko Ono's Imagine Peace exhibit opened at the Bob Rauschenburg Gallery at Florida SouthWestern State College in Fort Myers, Florida. Ono installed a billboard on U.S. Route 41 to promote the show and peace.
In 2014, "Angel" became Yoko Ono's twelfth number one hit on the US Dance chart.
In 2014, Yoko Ono contributed several artworks to the triennial Folkestone art festival.
In 2014, Yoko Ono installed Earth Peace as part of the Folkestone Triennial. The artwork included posters, stickers, billboards, and badges around Folkestone. Three pieces remain on loan to the town, including an inscribed stone, a flag flown annually on International Peace Day, and a beacon of light on The Grand hotel's roof flashing "Earth Peace" in morse code.
In 2015, Yoko Ono created Arising in Venice, a feminist art installation displayed at the European Cultural Centre's Palazzo Bembo as part of the Personal Structures exhibition. The artwork featured female silicon bodies burnt in the Venetian lagoon, evoking phoenix imagery.
In 2015, a retrospective of Yoko Ono's work was presented at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band continued to perform live into 2015.
On February 16, 2016, Manimal Vinyl released Yes, I'm a Witch Too, featuring remixes from various artists and receiving critical acclaim.
On September 6, 2016, Secretly Canadian announced they would be re-issuing 11 of Yoko Ono's albums from 1968 to 1985, starting with Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins and ending with Starpeace.
In October 2016, Yoko Ono unveiled her first permanent art installation in the United States, located in Jackson Park, Chicago, promoting peace. This collection was inspired by her visit to the Garden of the Phoenix in 2013.
In December 2016, Billboard magazine named Yoko Ono the 11th most successful dance club artist of all time.
Imagine Peace returned to Houston in 2016 through the Deborah Colton Gallery.
In 2016, Yoko Ono was named the 11th most successful dance club artist of all time by Billboard magazine, showcasing her continued impact on the music scene.
In October 2018, Yoko Ono released Warzone, which included new versions of previously recorded tracks, including "Imagine".
In 2019, Yoko Ono presented her participatory installation Add Color (Refugee Boat) (1960/2019) at Lower Manhattan's River to River Festival. The artwork involved a white room with a white rowing boat, both covered in messages and drawings by the audience, emphasizing solidarity and the history of immigrants and refugees in the United States.
In January 2021, Yoko Ono was one of the founders of The Coda Collection, a service featuring music documentaries and concert films.
On February 18, 2021, Yoko Ono's 88th birthday, The Coda Collection launched in the U.S. via Amazon Prime Video Channels, featuring music documentaries and concert films.
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