Essay on Yoko Ono: Alternative and Conceptual Art Genius

John Lennon is most known for helping shape and create one of the most iconic bands ever, The Beatles. What some people do not know, is John Lennon also made many other great contributions to society, music, and world culture. Lennon is considered to be a hero and a legend. Not only did he influence many generations with his music, but he allowed his voice to be heard in his music. Lennon could also be considered a tragic hero, considering he let his arrogance and drug use get in his way.

Although examining art requires a huge knowledge, my intention in this essay is to analyze a piece of art, besides lyrics and the context, I’m going to examine it by following the steps presented by Alain de Botton.

Frida Kahlo was a half-mexican, half-hungarian painter of the 20th century born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón in Coyoacán, Mexico City on July 6, 1907. During her short lived life, she had many accomplishments. She was a surrealist artist whos paintings reflected her thoughts and feelings. Her creative style was always amazing but confusing. Unfortunately, she lived most of her artistic life in the shadow of her husband, Diego Rivera, and her work was not truly recognized until after her death.

Did you know that many people blame Yoko Ono for breaking up the Beatles?This is actually not true , Paul McCartney actually defended Yoko Ono saying she was not the reason of the break up.The Beatles broke up because of a new manager and business practice,their manager Brian Epstein died,and they just started to not get along.

All works of art have a purpose or a kind of message they want to convey. When the artist is working on the piece they may already know the message or realize after the piece is complete just like

Non-conformist to traditional art forms, Conceptualism challenges the viewer to delve into the mindset of the artist. It is often seen as multidimensional as it forces the audience to decipher the artists intentions. This art movement has been completely rejecting the standard ideas of art since the mid-1960’s. Since then, many artists have made a name for themselves by self-consciously expanding the boundaries of art. Many of these artists have said they’ve linked their work to artist Marcel Duchamp.

A piece of artwork in this case is created and invented in manner that the viewer is lost away from the world of reality. The Invention and Fantasy theme of art uses the concept of imagery as most of this type of art work usually drifts the viewer from the state of reality into the dream world.

Yoko Ono is a Japanese artist, musician and activist, known not for her own works and career, but for her relationships with prominent men. She is an extremely contentious figure in popular culture and is thought of as the woman who “broke up The Beatles”, due to her passionate relationship with John Lennon. Yoko Ono is victim to many different interpretations, most related to her personal attributes. Her relationship to John Lennon is seen by critics and even Beatles fans as a ploy to financially, physically and psychologically manipulate Lennon. This essay will argue that the reason for Yoko Ono’s perception as an ‘acquisitive homewrecker’ is a direct result of the social commentary on Ono reflected in American media.

It is always evident when a person is different from others. They are not a blur amongst a group of people that can easily be looked over, like others. How they are different may be clear by the way they look but maybe their thoughts are what makes them interesting. Someone’s thoughts are difficult to find out just by a glance. There is a sense of curiosity to the disturbance of the ordinary. A maverick is a creative individual with a different mindset who is confident and bold. Commonly labeled an outcast they are someone who break the molds of societal norms that at the time are not encouraged but slowly become apart of the mainstream, alternating the traditional point of view. Frida Kahlo and Andy Warhol both contributed to different art movements. Frida Kahlo grew up with an illness and later experience what she would call two accidents that allowed her to start her innovative life. Kahlo changed societal norms having to do with sexuality, gender roles, and a new form of expression with private and personal subjects that at the time weren’t allowed to be talked about. Andy Warhol came from rags to riches because of his excellence in his artwork that was different and interesting from past artwork. He freely explored his sexuality and created the movement that made a huge change throughout America and the consumerist culture many parts of the world has been living in since the post war era. Both contributed to how current society is seen and what is now seen as normal

Marina trusted in her work, her art, and it allowed her to use her body as the canvas. To expose the energy and limits of the human mind. Another artist, Yoko Ono, did a piece 10 years earlier that was fairly similar to Rhythm 0. Yoko Ono did a nine-minute video called Cut Piece where she sat on stage and allowed her viewers to use scissors to cut pieces of her clothing off. The power is then given to the audience rather than the artist and the artist’s body becomes the canvas. Just like Marinas’ performance, Yoko Ono's’ audience started to get more and more aggressive about cutting her clothes off, leaving her fully exposed.

Yoko Ono is one the most influential performance, multi media and avante guarde artist of the 20th century who`s work has been over shadowed by her personnel life. Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1933 Ono attended the prestigious Gakushuin Unversity, while here her family moved to America to escape the war.Art appealed to Yoko `shortly after turning twenty years old, Yoko Ono discovered art out of necessity. “Art is a means of survival,”`1 she discovered this living through WWII where Yoko and her siblings would imagine all the foods they could not possess,this gave them hope in the bleakness and became the purpose of much of her art. It was also the inspiration for her earliest performance piece Lighting Piece (1955).

In addition, ORLAN was likely influenced by the existing art world and other contemporary artists. At the time of this performance in 1977, the conceptual art movement was at its peak and encouraging artists to stray away from the predisposed materialistic nature of art. Instead art was to focus around thoughts and beliefs of the artists rather than skill or marketability. ORLAN’s work in “The Kiss of the Artist,” is reminiscent of the movement as it deals less with art as an object and more with a concept visualized as art. Similarly today, art without provoking thought can be considered decoration, while art created to illustrate a concept has greater value both to people as individuals and as a part of a greater society; Part of appreciating art is the process of attempting to understand or assign meaning to it.

Postmodern art decided to make revolutionary break with past and questioned previous theories known as “big narratives” of art, politics, economics and overall culture in order to create new theories. The big part of postmodern theory deals with the belief of preexistence of the art all around us. The artist is the one who can recognize these elements of art around as and synthesize them into the art work. This art work becomes object of interpretation which inevitably varies among different generations, social groups, national group, religious groups, and depends on some extent of the educational level of the observers and it is also different in the same individual in different times or environments. The different interpretations of

The history of art dates back to ancient times. Artwork can be, and was, found around the world. What makes art interesting is that it can be created in any way, shape or form with any materials. It seems that the artwork can also tell us a lot about the artist. Art seems to be simply, a direct, visual reflection of the artist’s life. Therefore, one can assume that an artist’s life experiences and beliefs directly influence their art. If we look at examples from different periods of art we will be able to see the connection between the artist and the art.

of art as a finished product, signed by the artist and authenticated by the art market,