Lennon is best known as a revolutionary musician who changed rock and roll with the Beatles then turned to a highly successful solo career. Almost 30 years after his death, the world is still realizing that long before Lennon had a guitar, his sketch pad and pencil were his first artistic tools and the results are stunning pieces of art.
From 1957 to 1960, Lennon attended the reputable Liverpool Art Institute. His short stint as a full-time sketch artist ended when the grueling tour and recording schedule of the Beatles left little time for his art but Lennon continued to put pen to paper.
His primary work was line drawing with his main materials being pencil, pen or Japanese sumi, a black ink which is elegantly and simply used on plain white paper with as few strokes as possible.
Lennon Art Firmly Part of 1960s Culture
Lennon’s released artistic work is contained in several portfolios starting with The Daily Howl, a comic-book styled collection of sketches from his time as a high school student.
Later, Lennon’s drawings became illustrations for two books that he wrote: In His Own Write, published in 1964 and A Spaniard In the Works, released in 1965. These pieces are now considered representative of some of the period’s finest interpretive sketches and adorn many art prints and movie posters found around the world.
The most controversial of Lennon’s art is the 1969 Bag One Portfolio, a series of 14 lithographs that he created as a wedding gift for Yoko Ono. It included erotic sketches, under numbered titles, and whimsical pieces such as I Do and Exchange of Rings.
The series was first published and exhibited in 1970 at the London Art Gallery however, it was closed on the second day and the erotic pieces confiscated by Scotland Yard. Bag One is now part of the permanent collection at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Other important pieces are those that Lennon created during his last years for son Sean that depict daily life as a father and husband. They include A Bird Bath, A Monkey Chattering, Crabs Crabbing and A Small Pig is a Happy Pig.
Releases of Lennon Artwork Continue as Lennon Collection Grows
Many of his original drawings are also being collected by museums throughout the world including at The John Lennon Museum in Japan which opened to the public on October 9, 2000, the 60th anniversary of Lennon’s birth.
Yoko Ono continues releasing Lennon’s artwork in small collections and mainly for charitable purposes. She allowed his works to be published in the 1986 Skywriting by Word of Mouth, in 1992, released Ai: Japan Through John Lennon's Eyes: A Personal Sketchbook, and in 1999, Real Love: The Drawings for Sean.
In 2008 she sought to keep she and Lennon’s campaign for peace alive through an exhibit in Boston called Power to the People.
In the June 25, 2008 edition of The Boston Herald, Ono told journalist Jed Gottlieb that there is still plenty of John’s art to be released but that she does not want to show everything at the same time.
Ono released more artwork at a Manhattan gallery with an exhibition called Imagine Peace, containing more than 100 works created by Lennon from 1968 to 1980. As reported in the October 8, 2008 The New York Daily News, some works, such as He Tried to Consult the Stars, had never been seen.
The artwork of John Lennon is a fascinating part of the pop culture story from the 1950s to 1980 and serves as a tribute to the depths of his artistic expression. The recent release of several original pieces proves that the world will continue seeing original Lennon art in the years to come.
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