by Francesca Dent

Created on: March 18, 2009

In Tokyo on February 18th 1933, a woman who would become possibly the most famous widow in the world was born. Her name: Yoko Ono. When Yoko was 18, her father was made president of a bank in New York and the family moved to a prosperous suburb of Scarsdale. Yoko attended the prominent Sarah Lawrence College in New York but dropped out to elope with her first husband Toshi Ichiyanagi.

It was while living in Greenwich Village that Ono discovered the world of avant-garde artists, a highly creative group of people functioning in modernism and application of new notions and practices in a given field, especially art. This was the birth of a long connection with art, poetry and conceptual pieces in Ono's life. However her work was often ridiculed or ignored with her being labelled as an artistic radical. But things soon changed when she started working with Anthony Cox, an American jazz musician and film maker, who would ultimately become her second husband.

Cox helped with the financing of her interactive conceptual events in the 60's. The events required input and interaction with the audience. The most famous example of this is Cut Piece, in which members of the audience were encouraged to cut off items of her clothing until she was naked. The underlying meaning was discarding materialism for the natural.

In the 70's the "This Is Not Here" exhibition included observers completing a scenario in which a living room with objects such as an armchair, desk and television were cut in half. This was Yoko's way of saying that art is a two way process the presentation by the audience and the way in which it is translated by the audience.

Her marriage to Cox was a turbulent one which produced one child, Kyoko, who was born in 1963. She spent her early years surrounded by artists, musicians and film makers. Ono's life changed dramatically when she met John Lennon at one of her own exhibitions in London. With an art school background, and being one quarter of the biggest band at the time, Lennon had an extremely creative mind and the two formed a robust friendship, which eventually developed into romance. By 1968, their love affair was public and Ono's marriage to Cox and Lennon's marriage to the late Cynthia disintegrated. Yoko divorced Cox in 1969. In 1971, Cox accused Yoko Ono of kidnapping their daughter from a hotel. Accusations were then made by both Ono and Cox; some say that during a weekend custody visit, Cox kidnapped Kyoko. Some people say that Yoko Ono has never seen her daughter since that weekend and is not aware of her location; others say that Kyoko lives in Colorado, where she spends her time pursuing her career as an artist.
Ono and Lennon married in 1969 and, in the aftermath of press coverage, they decided to use the publicity to promote world peace. They famously spent their honeymoon at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel, inviting the press into their room between 9am and 9pm. Based on previous stunts by the pair, the press expected them to be making love, instead the pair were sitting in bed talking about peace. Until the assassination of John Lennon in 1980, Ono and Lennon enjoyed exploring new creative areas. Since his death, Yoko Ono has continued working. She has released books, composed musicals and released music albums including Yes I'm a Witch, Fly and Walking on Thin Ice. It cannot be argued that through her art and music, she tests the limits of what is viewed as being acceptable in society.

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