Better known as a member of the music band The Beatles, John Lennon was also a prolific visual artist. Before becoming a professional musician, he studied art at the Liverpool Art Institute. He created drawings throughout his life, even during the hectic years when The Beatles were at their height of popularity. In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married. They legally and ceremonially took each others names. Henceforth, they were John Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon. As a wedding gift for Yoko, John created a series of sketches chronicling their wedding and honeymoon. He titled the series
Bag One. It was published in limited edition and exhibited in 1970. The first exhibition was held at the London Art Gallery. On the second day, the exhibition was closed by Scotland Yard due to the explicit sexual nature of some of the drawings.
In 1986, Yoko Ono Lennon published the first of a series of fine art prints. She titled the series This is my Story Both Humble and True. Subsequently, several more series of John Lennon’s prints were to be published. Those were, Bag One Continued, Dakota Days, Karuizawa Series, Japan Through John Lennon’s Eyes, Real Love the Drawings for Sean, and Mind Games. All of the prints in each of the series were hand signed by Yoko Ono Lennon. The prints were also numbered, and stamped with a unique chop mark.
The art of John Lennon is or has been exhibited in galleries including but not necessarily limited to the following:
AFA Gallery, New York City, NY
Amy Thomas Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
Ann Jackson Gallery, Roswell GA
Artplode LTD, Stanmore, Middlesex, England
Chasen Galleries, Richmond, VA
Fascination Street Fine Art, Denver, CO
Graphic Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Herndon Fine Art, Monument, CO
Hotel Indigo, Newton, MA
King & McGaw, Newhaven, East Sussex, England
Liss Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada
Mahler Fine Art, Raleigh, NC
Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY
MWP World Gallery, La Pine, OR
Off the Wall Gallery, Houston, TX
Ocean Galleries, Stone Harbor, NJ
Pacific Edge Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
Portola Plaza Hotel, Monterey, CA
Road Show Company, Cincinnati, OH
San Francisco Art Exchange, San Francisco, CA
Westfield Century City, Los Angeles, CA
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