Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, musician, and peace activist whose experimental work spans performance, film, visual art, and music.
Fluxus: An international avant-garde movement that blurred boundaries between art, music, performance, and everyday life. Ono’s event scores and performances became closely associated with Fluxus.
Imagine: A 1971 song by John Lennon that envisions a world without national, religious, or material divisions. Ono’s influence on its lyrics was formally recognized in the song’s songwriting credit in 2017.
John Cage: An American composer whose experimental music challenged conventional ideas of sound, chance, and silence. Cage’s experimental approach formed part of the artistic environment Ono encountered in New York.
Wish Tree: A participatory artwork by Yoko Ono in which visitors write wishes and attach them to a tree. It translates her recurring interest in audience participation into a continuing public installation.
Conceptual art: Art in which ideas or instructions take precedence over the making of a conventional physical object. Many of Ono’s works are proposals that exist through thought, interpretation, or participation.
John Lennon: An English musician, songwriter, and peace activist who co-founded the Beatles. Ono collaborated with Lennon on music and public peace campaigns, as well as sharing his life.
La Monte Young: An American composer associated with minimalism and sustained tones in experimental music. Ono organized concerts featuring Young’s work in her New York loft in 1960–61.
Skylanding: A 2016 public sculpture by Yoko Ono installed in Chicago’s Jackson Park. The work brought her peace-oriented art into a permanent civic setting.
Performance art: Art in which an artist’s actions, often staged for an audience, form the work. Her performances made the body and audience participation central artistic materials.
War Is Over! (If You Want It): A 1969 antiwar campaign by Yoko Ono and John Lennon, publicized through billboards and other media. It exemplifies Ono’s use of mass communication as a medium for peace activism.