Yoko Ono
1933: Yoko Ono was born on February 18th in Yokyo, Japan into a wealthy household.
1952: Yoko moved from Tokyo to Scarsdale, NY with her family to join her father in late 1952.
1955: She dropped from out of Sarah Lawrence and moved to Manhattan with Toshi Ichiyanagi
1959: She first met John Cage at one of Suzuki’s lectures at that time and her friendship with Cage grew through her husband Toshi Ichiyanagi who was associated with Cage and attended Cage’s historic class in Experimental Composition at the New School for Social Research in 1959.
Dec 1960 to June 1961: La Monte Young series of concerts at Yoko Ono’s Chambers Street loft
(Concerts by Terry Jennings, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Henry Flynt, J. Byrd, Mac Low, Maxfield, L Young, S Forti, R Morris Dennis Lindberg.)
1961: Maciunas would have first met Yoko Ono.
July 17–30, 1961: Show of Ono’s (“Instruction”) paintings at AG Gallery
March 1962: Yoko returns to Japan.
May 1962: First Concert Exhibition at Tokyo’s Sõgetsu Art Center. Her show was based on a series of instructions for “paintings to be constructed in your head”
October 1962: Ichiyanagi arranged through Sogetsu Art Center for Cage and Tudor to visit Japan and perform several concerts. Ono participated in those programs appearing in Cage’s premiere performances of Music Walk and Arias for Solo Piano with Fontana Mix.
Around this time, she checked into a sanatorium.
She emerged several months later after she met Anthony Cox whose daughter, Kyoko, she bore in 1963.
1964 – Ono compiled her instructions, scores and poems for the publication of Grapefruit.
1966 –Ono meets John Lennon at her show at London’s Indica Gallery.
1969 – Yoko and John perform Bed-In for Peace and record their single Give Peace a Chance.
1975 – Yoko Gives birth to Sean Lennon.
1980 – John Lennon is murdered.
Awards
1982 Yoko Ono won the Grammy Award in the Album of the Year category for Double
Fantasy with John Lennon and Jack Douglas.
1987 Yoko Ono received Helen Caldicott leadership award for efforts to promote peace.
1997 Yoko Ono received an Honorary Doctorate from The Art Institute Of Chicago.
2001 Yoko Ono shared the Grammy Award as one of four producers for Gimme Some
Truth – The Making of John Lennon’s Imagine Album as the Best Long Form Music Video.
2001 The retrospective exhibition YES Yoko Ono won an award for Best Museum Show
NYC Origination presented by The US Art Critics Association.
2002 Yoko One won a Skowhegan’s award 2002 for assorted mediums in art.
2002 Yoko One was presented with an award by Lifespire, a not-for-profit agency serving people with developmental disabilities
2003 The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) honoured artist Yoko Ono, at the fifth MOCA Award to Distinguished Women in the Arts.
2005 Yoko Ono received a Lifetime Achievement Award at IMAJINE 2005, the Japan Society Arts & Culture Gala Benefit.
2006 Yoko Ono was awarded the International Prize for Visual Arts 2006 of the Cristobal Gabarron Foundation, Spain.
2008 Yoko One was awarded the Distinguished Body of Work Award 2008 by College Art Association and Americans for the Arts National Arts Award.
2009 Yoko Ono will be awarded Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in June 2009.
Bibliography
Grapefruit (1964)
Summer of 1980 (1983)
Tada-no Watashi – Just me! (1986)
The John Lennon Family Album (1990)
Instruction Paintings (1995)
Grapefruit Juice (1998)
Yes Yoko Ono (2000)
Odyssey of a Cockroach (2005)
Imagine Yoko (2005)
Memories of John Lennon (editor) (2005)
Filmography
Eye Blink (1966, 5mins)
Bottoms (1966, 5.5mins)
Match (1966, 5 mins)
Cut Piece (1965, 9mins)
Wrapping Piece (1967, approx. 20 mins)
Film No. 4 (Bottoms) (1966/1967, 80 mins)
Bottoms, advertisement/commercial (1966/1967, approx. 2 mins)
Two Virgins (1968, approx 20 mins)
Film No. Five (Smile) (1968, 51 mins)
Rape (1969, 77 mins)
Bed-In, (1969, 74 mins)
Let It Be, (1970, ? mins)
Apotheosis (1970, 18.5mins)
Freedom (1970, 1min)
Fly (1970, approx. 30 mins)
Making of Fly (1970, approx. 30 mins)
Erection (1971, 20 mins)
Imagine (1971, 70)
Sisters O Sisters (1971, 4 mins)
Luck of the Irish (1971, approx 4 mins)
Flipside (TV show) (1972, approx. 25 mins)
Blueprint for the Sunrise (2000, 28 mins)