Today would have been John Lennon's 69th birthday. Musician, artist, peace activist - his legacy and message continues to resonate. For the next three days, Montclair is host to a wonderful exhibition of Lennon's artwork "We All Shine On," co-sponsored by Montclair BID and Yoko Ono's Legacy Fine Art & Productions. I visited the show yesterday with Production Manager, Bob Pratt.
The collection includes framed and unframed limited edition lithographs, serigraphs, and copper etchings reproduced from the original drawings. The exhibition is presented in three parts: rare, Bag One lithographs, signed and numbered by Lennon; "Real Love" - kids pieces drawn for son Sean during Lennon's house-husband years and colored by Yoko Ono; and pieces selected by Yoko - for a limited print run of 1,000. Pratt showed me a few pieces which are nearly sold out, down to the last four or five reproductions.
Before Lennon was a Beatle, he attended Liverpool Art School and started his career as an artist. "Lennon's artwork is Yoko Ono's love story," says Pratt. "In his post-Beatle years, Yoko encouraged John to get back to his artwork, presenting him with a sketch book every year on their anniversary." His first exhibition in London, line drawings in pen, pencil and Japanese ink included erotica that the critics considered pornographic, and the show was shut down. Some of these works, tame by today's standards, are among the 100 reproductions on display for Lennon's "birthday show" this weekend.
"We All Shine On" is the largest collection of Lennon's work ever assembled. The historical, intimate drawings gave me a feeling of personally connecting with Lennon's life, humor, music, and politics. I especially liked seeing repro's of his famous musical lyrics scrawled and doodled on notebook paper. Five new lyrics, from Lennon's Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey albums make a show debut. In the entry hall, location of the famous "Bag One" series (1970), two original drawings are displayed: Two Virgins ca. 1971, and Treasure Ivan, ca. 1960.
Admission is free, but a donation of $2 at the door is suggested. 100% of the donations will go to Montclair Salvation Army. "Every year Ono donates profits from the show to the Spirit Foundation," says Pratt. Legacy Fine Art has toured the collection for 19 years, with over 350 shows. They brought it to Montclair five years ago. Pratt says "the response was overwhelming, which is why we chose to come back on his birthday weekend." Come early, and don't be surprised if there's a line out the door.
The exhibit will be held at former WaMu Bank, 460 Bloomfield Avenue, on the corner of Bloomfield Avenue and South Fullerton Avenue.
"We All Shine On"
FRIDAY - October 9th ~ 12:00 PM - 9:00 PM
SATURDAY - October 10th ~ 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM
SUNDAY - October 11th ~ 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
For Show Info Please Call: (888) ART-1969
For Directions Please Call: (973) 509-3820
-- Photos courtesy of Legacy Art Productions. Top, l-t-r, Peace Brother, Power To The People. Bottom, Imagine All the People, Drive My Car, © Yoko Ono
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Comments (27)
"...and pieces selected by Yoko - for a limited print run of 1,000."
For an extra $100 Yoko will sign and inscribe the print with:
"Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can"
ROC, you really are a jackass.
Happy birthday, John. RIP.
ROC, you really are a jackass.
Duck!
The day after he was shot, I remember going to work and a co-worker ran in, screaming, "I can't believe someone shot Jack Lemmon."
But, RIP John. I'll definitely try to get to the art exhibit.
My 12 year old nephew has more maturity and grace than ROC of late.
Happy Birthday John.
One surprising thing you have in common with John Lennon, jerseygurl, is that you've both yearned to be taken seriously on intellectual grounds.
He came a little closer than you ever will. (But not THAT far, given the treacle of songs like "Imagine" and "Woman.")
"100% of the donations will go to Montclair Salvation Army. "Every year Ono donates profits from the show to the Spirit Foundation,""
RIP John... Your music was great
"yearned to be taken seriously on intellectual grounds."
Hard to be taken seriously when you did so much drugs like Acid, Mescaline, Peyote, Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana, and abused legal drugs like booze for so many years........
John was a great man, but hard to take anyone serious about peace when your buying and using drugs that are causing some much pain and war all across the world!
Every year Ono donates profits from the show to the Spirit Foundation
In 1971, I was at a Mothers of Invention concert at the Fillmore East. Then venue was soon to close and I wanted to get there one more time. About half way through the show a man in a white, bellbottomed suit and shaggy hair appeared on stage. The audience members in the front rows recognized him first and the roar grew as the rest of the audience came to realize who had just walked on stage. He jammed with the band for a couple of songs and his wife also joined the fray, ensconced in a burlap bag, shrieking into the microphone. I didn't mind her intrusion, I had just seen a Beatle perform live and was in seventh heaven.
RIP John, you were right, 'Genius is pain'.
You're kidding right? So she's not giving quite enough for your tastes or to the right people? I'm am not a fan of Yoko Ono, but she's certainly been very charitable.
I saw the show last night and thought the work was absolutely wonderful. I was glad to have an opportunity to see it. There was only one thing that saddened me--i saw no images of John Lennon's "other" son, Julian Lennon. Obviously, I don't know any of these family members personally so I don't know the dynamic, or if perhaps Yoko had attempted to included images of Julian in the show and was told no, he preferred not to be included, or even if (and this would be really awful) there were no drawings of Julian Lennon. Speaking as a Mom, i find it disturbing and sad to "imagine" that one son was important enough to be cherished and tended to, and the other son was marginalized. They both needed the love of their father.
Oh my God, ROC...we agree on something! That line always gave me a good laugh, even when he was still alive. His heart was in the right place, but he still knew the way to the bank.
RIP, John. I can't believe he would have been 69 today. He was my favorite Beatle and I was devastated when he died. The circumstances were just too absurd. Here he'd survived so many things that could have killed him as they did many a rock star. There were also enough muggers and murderers in NYC to potentially do the deed. And yet some psycho Lennon wannabe flies all the way in from Hawaii to stalk and shoot him. Some things just make no sense.
October 9, 2009
The Artwork of John Lennon exhibit is a -fraud-.
This is how it has been done:
FIRST, in 1986, Yoko Ono decided to cash in on her husband's doodles which is her right. The only problem is when she reproduced John Lennon's b&w drawings as b&w reproductions, she failed to disclose them as reproductions, instead she misrepresent those reproductions as original works of visual art ie., lithographs. (Note: lithographs are original works of visual art that must be created by a living artist. Remember in 1986, John Lennon was still dead.)
SECOND, shortly thereafter in 1986, Yoko Ono discover b&w reproductions, even when misrepresented as original works of visual art ie., lithographs and the like, wouldn't sell as quickly or for as much as she would like, she had them colorized.
THIRD, and finally in 1998, Yoko Ono lost all inhibitions and began authorizing alter compositions and colorization of work John Lennon did not create, much less approved and passed them off as work he drew for his son Sean. A good majority of those altered drawings came from b&w reproductions in John Lennon's 1964 In His Own Write and 1965 A Spaniard in his own Words books. Those books were published two years before he met Yoko Ono and twelve years before they had a son Sean in 1976.
Yoko Ono has no shame.
To learn more about these contentious issues of authenticity, Google -Artwork of John Lennon FRAUD-.
Gary Arseneau
artist, creator of original lithographs & scholar
Fernandina Beach, Florida
Actually, Kyle, it is unclear who took more drugs, John Lennon or Rush Limbaugh.
RIP John
RIP George
Listen to the color of your dreams.
I love it when the RSS feeds bring "subject matter experts" to our little corner of the internets so they can cut and paste the same comment here that they've left in countless other venues.
Cathar, have you ever been the Walrus?
I am the Eggman.
Julian Lennon has been quite candid in stating that, while he admires his father's work, he feels that John was a terrible father to him.
I would rather be dead than have one of my children say that about me.
But John was a complex, deeply flawed but fundamentally decent man who would most likely have gotten better with age. He overcame a tumultous childhood and moved past a great many of the parochial views of post-war northern England, no small feat for those who know what kind of yobbos that environment produced by the lorryload.
His influence was and remains enormous, and his body of work far surpasses that of most -- including those who post here disparagingly.
As for "Imagine" well, his good friend Elton John once penned a little ditty for him before things turned tragic in 1980:
Imagine six apartments
It isn't hard to do.
One is full of fur coats
The other's full of shoes.
And before we get carried away with the "Yoko as goldigger" song, it would be good to remember that she, as the daughter of a prominent and wealthy Japanese banker, is properly credited with diversifying Lennon's portfolio and making a wealthy rock star into a very, very wealthy rock star/businessman.
And John was quite happy to have her do it.
Mrs. Martta, I like your segue - we're talking chickens in one thread and eggs in another.
But which came first?
John at his best.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaRz-3DYV7c
Although it may enrage you, croiagusanam (along with most of the other "usual suspects" here), it seems it is not at all much out of line to suggest that John Lennon was, as they sometimes say, uh, "pussywhipped."
As for Yoko Ono, some of us will also always suspect that her famously admitted-to encouragement of John's departure to LA with May Pang for some length of time was less an espression of her generous nature (and lack of sexual possessiveness) than a desire to hold on to her meal ticket, thus to her entree to circles which otherwise would have dismissed her own very awful efforts at "singing" and "composing" as the worst sort of pretentious dreck. She remains, thank the Lord, a very minor sort of "artist."
Worse, however, we are now stuck with Sean, who is offered up to us by Yoko as the literal embodiment of his father's real (but maybe not all that great on his own to go by his lyrical flatfootedness) talent. While Julian, who seemed an interesting singer-songwriter for a while, merely passes in and out of rehab every now and then.
John Lennon was a true artist, unlike so many rappers. Meanwhile, but Keep It Simple, Stupid is touring . . . again???????? Does anyone really care if Demon Vampire and the Star Child want to rock and roll all nite?
And party every day?
Speaking of "pretentious dreck", Cathar, some writers have a legacy that will live on long after they stop writing.
Cathar, wake up.
Being "pussywhipped" can be OK at times, you know.
Write Revolver, write Pepper, then sneer.
Until then,,it sounds like green eyes.
Emerson said, write one line,then rest on yor oars forever.
Who has written Lennon's
?
You?