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-- Page 19

"Yoko Ono Painting to be Stepped On, 1961
Almus Gallery, New York"



-- Page 17

"Ono leads in a direction that might be called Concept-Art



INSTRUCTIVE AUTO-DESTRUCTION




THE FULL MOON hangs over the Lower East Side, its light
shines on paper-littered streets. In the daytime 2nd Avenue
is jammed with traffic and it's possible to look up through
the dust and heat at the sky and imagine what those few
seconds would be like before it came if eternity were to fit.
What an EVENT!
What is an Event and what does it have to do with Art?
Circa 1950: Yoko Ono is sitting around some-place
striking matches. She is observing the significance of a
natural act. Many matches later she finds that by lighting
a match and watching til it has gone out she is making
something that has a shorter existence than herself, and
by comparison is making her life longer.
When people are asked to observe the passage of time
they may feel ill at ease. Is this why we have a term like
auto-destruction? One of Yoko Ono's first events is
called LIGHTING PIECE: 'Light a match and watch
till it goes out.'
1961: her first one-man show in New York, in which
fifteen works were what she calls INSTRUCTUER;
'Something that emerged from instruction and yet not
quite emerged - not quite structured - never quite struc-
tured --- like an unfinished church with a sky ceiling.'
One of these works which was described by a critic as 'a
grimy unstrung canvas with a hole in it' is SMOKE
PAINTING: 'Light canvas or any finished painting with
a cigarettes at any time for any length of time. See the smoke
movement. The painting ends when the whole canvas is
gone.'* For Ono, paintings like Event do end: an ad-
ditional act in life; something to solve the temptation of
insanity.
Other works in her 1961 show were, PAINTING TO
BE STEPPED ON: 'Leave a piece of canvas or finished
painting on the floor or in the street.'* A + B PAINTING;
'Cut out a circle on canvas. A. Place a numeral figure, a
roman letter, or a katakanao on canvas B at an arbitrary
point. Place canvas A on canvas B and hang them together.
The figure on canvas B may show, may show partially, or
may not show. You may use old paintings, photographs, etc.
instead of blank canvases.'* PAINTING FOR THE
WIND: 'Make a hole. Leave it in the wind.'* PAINT-
ING TO SEE THE SKIES: 'Drill two holes into a can-
vas. Hang it where you can see the sky. (Change the place
of hanging. Try both the front and the rear windows, to
see if the skies are different.')* PAINTING TO LET
THE EVENING LIGHT GO THROUGH: 'Hang a
bottle behind a canvas. Place the canvas where the west
light comes in. The painting will exist when the bottle
creates a shadow on the canvas, or it does not have to
exist. The bottle may contain liquor, water, grasshoppers,
ants or singing insects, or it does not have to contain.'*
BLOOD PIECE: 'Use your blood to paint. Keep painting
until you faint (A). Keep painting until you die (B).'*
These and the others in the show were designed to be
done by anybody although at the time it was not apparent
to most observers and as well the works had been made by
Ono, they were regarded as going in one direction only:
purely auto-destructive. Actually all her paintings exist
in two phases. (1) The instruction phase; which may be
compared to a musical composition; written, copywritten,
distributed, and generally at large for anybody to make
(perform) and show (2) the existence of the particular
piece, which generally has some aspect which is in a state
of flux. Sometimes this may be only one-way, sometimes
it may be oscillating, or the piece may just need to be
refuelled, so to speak.
The one aspect which is considered so important in
most painting, the graphic element, or visual design, is
almost never stated except in the vaguest way as in A + B
PAINTING, and like a Swiss Patent, it is never clear
exactly how the formula goes. This is left up to the indi-
vidual who is to construct the work and how he feels about
such things. For the maker of the work and the audience
this opens up all sorts of possibilities. One is able to
observe certain relationships between art and life that are
usually overlooked in purely graphic art. Instead of saying
how the hell did he do that one might say why the hell do
I have to do that. The owner and/or maker of the painting
must continually come to grips with certain problems that
force him to consider what the concept of art is all about.


Recently, while the works of hers constructed by various
painters and sculptors were being collected in a gallery
for a show this coming fall, a piece was accidentally sold.
The piece WORD MACHINE #1 SKY MACHINE,
which produces a card with the word 'sky' on it when 25c
is deposited was acquired by Mr. & Mrs. Robert Scull. In
order to complete the sale in the case of this particular
p

-- Page 19

"Yoko Ono A + B Painting 1961
Almus Gallery, New York"



-- Page 17


"Ono leads in a direction that might be called Concept-Art



INSTRUCTIVE AUTO-DESTRUCTION




THE FULL MOON hangs over the Lower East Side, its light
shines on paper-littered streets. In the daytime 2nd Avenue
is jammed with traffic and it's possible to look up through
the dust and heat at the sky and imagine what those few
seconds would be like before it came if eternity were to fit.
What an EVENT!
What is an Event and what does it have to do with Art?
Circa 1950: Yoko Ono is sitting around some-place
striking matches. She is observing the significance of a
natural act. Many matches later she finds that by lighting
a match and watching til it has gone out she is making
something that has a shorter existence than herself, and
by comparison is making her life longer.
When people are asked to observe the passage of time
they may feel ill at ease. Is this why we have a term like
auto-destruction? One of Yoko Ono's first events is
called LIGHTING PIECE: 'Light a match and watch
till it goes out.'
1961: her first one-man show in New York, in which
fifteen works were what she calls INSTRUCTUER;
'Something that emerged from instruction and yet not
quite emerged - not quite structured - never quite struc-
tured --- like an unfinished church with a sky ceiling.'
One of these works which was described by a critic as 'a
grimy unstrung canvas with a hole in it' is SMOKE
PAINTING: 'Light canvas or any finished painting with
a cigarettes at any time for any length of time. See the smoke
movement. The painting ends when the whole canvas is
gone.'* For Ono, paintings like Event do end: an ad-
ditional act in life; something to solve the temptation of
insanity.
Other works in her 1961 show were, PAINTING TO
BE STEPPED ON: 'Leave a piece of canvas or finished
painting on the floor or in the street.'* A + B PAINTING;
'Cut out a circle on canvas. A. Place a numeral figure, a
roman letter, or a katakanao on canvas B at an arbitrary
point. Place canvas A on canvas B and hang them together.
The figure on canvas B may show, may show partially, or
may not show. You may use old paintings, photographs, etc.
instead of blank canvases.'* PAINTING FOR THE
WIND: 'Make a hole. Leave it in the wind.'* PAINT-
ING TO SEE THE SKIES: 'Drill two holes into a can-
vas. Hang it where you can see the sky. (Change the place
of hanging. Try both the front and the rear windows, to
see if the skies are different.')* PAINTING TO LET
THE EVENING LIGHT GO THROUGH: 'Hang a
bottle behind a canvas. Place the canvas where the west
light comes in. The painting will exist when the bottle
creates a shadow on the canvas, or it does not have to
exist. The bottle may contain liquor, water, grasshoppers,
ants or singing insects, or it does not have to contain.'*
BLOOD PIECE: 'Use your blood to paint. Keep painting
until you faint (A). Keep painting until you die (B).'*
These and the others in the show were designed to be
done by anybody although at the time it was not apparent
to most observers and as well the works had been made by
Ono, they were regarded as going in one direction only:
purely auto-destructive. Actually all her paintings exist
in two phases. (1) The instruction phase; which may be
compared to a musical composition; written, copywritten,
distributed, and generally at large for anybody to make
(perform) and show (2) the existence of the particular
piece, which generally has some aspect which is in a state
of flux. Sometimes this may be only one-way, sometimes
it may be oscillating, or the piece may just need to be
refuelled, so to speak.
The one aspect which is considered so important in
most painting, the graphic element, or visual design, is
almost never stated except in the vaguest way as in A + B
PAINTING, and like a Swiss Patent, it is never clear
exactly how the formula goes. This is left up to the indi-
vidual who is to construct the work and how he feels about
such things. For the maker of the work and the audience
this opens up all sorts of possibilities. One is able to
observe certain relationships between art and life that are
usually overlooked in purely graphic art. Instead of saying
how the hell did he do that one might say why the hell do
I have to do that. The owner and/or maker of the painting
must continually come to grips with certain problems that
force him to consider what the concept of art is all about.


Recently, while the works of hers constructed by various
painters and sculptors were being collected in a gallery
for a show this coming fall, a piece was accidentally sold.
The piece WORD MACHINE #1 SKY MACHINE,
which produces a card with the word 'sky' on it when 25c
is deposited was acquired by Mr. & Mrs. Robert Scull. In
order to complete the sale in the case of this particular
piece it