JOHN LENNON
75 YEARS ON
G'day folks,
Here is a post about a very interesting man. However, he was not only a musician. Amongst other things, he was a deep thinker. John Lennon would have turned 75 this
year. Of course, there have been multitudes of books written about his musical
contribution to the world, both as one of The Beatles and as a solo artist.
This particular writer has read quite a few of them, and couldn’t agree more
that the music world—and perhaps the world as we know it—wouldn’t have been the
same without him.
But
Lennon’s artistic side wasn't just expressed in his music; it manifested itself
in every aspect of his life. As a teen, it was in the way he dressed, and his
sharp and often cruel wit. He found the outlet he desperately needed in his
guitar and the rock 'n' roll that was making its way across the Atlantic, and
ultimately became one of the greatest songwriters in the world. But before he
was an icon, before he was a world-renowned musician, Lennon was an artist.
From the time he was a schoolboy, he kept a notebook full of his drawings,
dubbed it The Daily Howl,
and shared it with his friends and classmates. And he never stopped drawing, no
matter what else was changing in his life or his career.
In
recent interviews, Yoko Ono
has talked about how pleased Lennon would have been to have his own art
exhibit. Right now, to celebrate his life's work as well as his birthday, The Art of John Lennon is up at the
AFA Gallery in Soho, New York, throughout the
month of October. The art has been curated from a collection of rare archival
sketches, and is available for acquisition as well as on display to the public
for free.
As a
tribute to the artist in John Lennon, we’re taking a look at five significant
places, people, and events that made his artwork, and his passion for it,
change his life, and therefore, arguably, all of ours who listen to him.
1. THE LIVERPOOL COLLEGE OF ART
As a
rebellious teenager, there wasn’t much chance of Lennon getting into a
traditional college, especially given the strict British educational standards
of the 1950s. Luckily, there was the nearby Liverpool College of Art, which
became the catalyst for changes in Lennon himself, in his work, and in the
early development of The Beatles.
It
was there where his artistic talent was actually noticed and appreciated, and
it was a place where he could get to know other artists, some of whom even
earned his very hard-won respect including two very important figures in his
life: Stu Sutcliffe and Cynthia Powell.
‘Cyn,’
as Lennon called her, became his first wife and the mother of his son Julian.
While their marriage ended harshly, she was still his first young love, and his
passion for her helped fuel his passion for music and his drive to succeed,
especially once he became a father.
Sutcliffe
was Lennon’s best friend, and a great source of inspiration. He was considered
brilliant by everyone else at the art college, and when he accomplished the
amazing feat of selling one of his paintings for 65 pounds, Lennon talked him
into spending it on a bass guitar and joining The Beatles, ignoring the fact
that he couldn’t really play. While his good looks were a no-brainer for
attracting female fans, he usually turned his back to the audience so people
couldn’t see that more often than not, he was playing in the wrong key. (A
frustrated Paul McCartney eventually took over the bass himself.)
But
Sutcliffe’s influence on Lennon as an artist was immeasurable, as was his
encouragement of Lennon’s talent. While Lennon’s teachers were frustrated by
his rebellious attitude, Sutcliffe was there to reassure him that there really
was an artist in there, albeit a misunderstood one.
2. GERMANY: ASTRID, JURGEN, AND KLAUS
In 1960,
The Beatles—which at that time meant John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
George Harrison,
Stu Sutcliffe, and drummer Pete Best—headed to Hamburg on their very first
tour. Soon after their arrival, they met three German art students: Astrid
Kirchherr, Jurgen Vollmer, and Klaus Voorman. The three young German artists
were immediately drawn to the British bad boys, and the infatuation was mutual.
They read Astrid’s books, they ate meals in her mum’s kitchen, and they were
fascinated by her art, her photos, and her taste in design. Sutcliffe and Kirchherr
fell in love, and Sutcliffe ended up staying in Germany with her, thus freeing
himself from his role as a bad bass guitarist.
Kirchherr
had a big impact on the group’s style. When Sutcliffe asked her to cut and
style his hair like Voorman’s, the rest of the band soon followed, and the
famous “Beatle haircut” was born. (Kirchherr later laughed this off, saying
that the haircut was already popular in Germany at the time.) Kirchherr also
designed her own clothes, and it was she who created the collarless jacket that
also became an early Beatles trademark.
Voorman,
like Lennon, was a talented artist as well as a musician. He stayed connected
to The Beatles throughout their career, winning a Grammy Award for his cover
art on their Revolver
album. In the 1990s, he designed the cover for the Beatles Anthology albums. He also played on
solo albums for Lennon, Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
Vollmer, like Kirchherr, was also a photographer, and they both
took dozens of early photos of The Beatles, finding endless inspiration in
their subjects, and teaching John the artistic value of a great photograph.
Years later, Lennon would choose one of Vollmer’s photos for the cover of his Rock 'n' Roll album, showing him standing in a doorway, the blurred figures
of George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Stu Sutcliffe in the foreground.
3. LONDON: MEETING YOKO
Where did
John Lennon first meet future wife and soulmate Yoko Ono? At an art show. .
.hers, to be precise. Yoko, an avant-garde artist in London, was about to have
her very first exhibit at the Indica Gallery, and the day before it opened,
Lennon went to preview it on the advice of a friend. He appreciated the
absurdity of her work right away, and most of it made him laugh as it
challenged his ideas about what art was and wasn't. He responded to her request
to nail an imaginary nail into a wall with a hammer for five shillings by
offering her an imaginary five shillings. They locked eyes. The connection was
made.
4. THE LATE 60s/EARLY 70s ART SCENE: GETTING EXPERIMENTAL
In 1968,
they opened their first joint art exhibit, officially titled You Are Here
(To Yoko from John Lennon, With Love). Reflecting their interest in
performance art and "happenings" as well as gallery art, they wore
white to match the gallery walls. After the London opening, they went outside
and released 365 white balloons filled with helium into the city. Cards were
attached to each one encouraging whoever found them to mail them to Lennon care
of the gallery, and those who did so were rewarded with a handwritten thank you
note from Lennon.
The two
combined their new need to be inseparable as a couple with their art, music,
and performance. From their rather unlistenable squalls on their first album
together, Two Virgins, and its cover featuring their naked, unretouched
bodies, to their experiments in bagism (which included an entire press
conference given from inside a bag) and their planting of “acorns of peace” in
the garden of Coventry Cathedral, they played with the definition of art and
politics, willing to try anything to see what messages got through to a
bewildered but often fascinated public. They created happenings, made films,
and Lennon, as always, kept drawing.
Lennon and Ono—now dubbed
JohnandYoko by Lennon—married in 1969. As a wedding gift, Lennon presented Ono
with a collection of erotic drawings of the two of them called Bag One.
When they set up a gallery exhibit featuring the drawings a year later,
Scotland Yard came to shut it down, confiscating 8 of the 14 prints. “Depravity
and corruption” were the issues at hand, and later dismissed by a judge. In
1981, the same collection went on a worldwide tour, hitting 100 different
cities, and, still controversial after all those years, was shut down in Rhode
Island, due to so-called obscenity. These days, it's part of the permanent
collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
5. NEW YORK AND JAPAN: FINDING CONTENTMENT IN
FAMILY LIFE
In what
were to be his final years, Lennon kept drawing. Ono reports that he was at it
all the time, not just in meetings that bored him but everywhere they went, and
he was so frequently pushing his creations at her that she would laugh and say
“yeah, yeah" when he handed her yet another new one.
In June
of 1977, Lennon and family went on an extended visit to Japan. Still open to
all kinds of artistic influences, he started adding a sort of signature to his
newer work: a traditional red artist's mark of Japanese characters. His
translated to "like a cloud, beautiful sound."
His drawings never lost their whimsy, but he softened up around
the edges. No longer drawing the “cripples” he used to create in his Daily Howl notebook, his favorite subject was now the trio of John, Yoko
and their son Sean.
The pictures were happy ones; portraits of a man who had finally found
contentment and made peace with himself.
Clancy's comment: An amazing man in many ways. Go, John!
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