A Florida-based artist is railing against Yoko Ono, accusing the wife of the late John Lennon of making the English musician’s artworks “cut-and-paste mashups” by altering them. The Japanese artist and activist has been selling Lennon’s art over the years, raising money for charities. What many people apparently didn’t know is that she’s also been adding color to various pieces, changing their compositions, and pasting “counterfeit John Lennon chop mark/signatures” on them. Not all the images have been tampered with, but four definitely show signs of alteration. The $5,000 Herd Moving seems to be the most changed, taking ” … a giraffe and a rhino from In His Own Write and [multiplying] them, [flipping] them, and [coloring] them, placing three of each figure in a new work also filled with snakes copied from another composition, three identical elephants (evidently taken from yet another composition), and a monkey swinging from a tree.”
Ono has apparently posthumously forged other works in the past. In 2010, she told some “professional people” in regards to one of Lennon’s pieces that they should ” … at least let [her] color it, because John probably would not have minded it if [she] did it.” Is this compromising the authenticity of Lennon’s work, or merely applying an artistic license the late Beatle would have endorsed? Check out a few of the images in question after the jump.
Image credit: John Lennon
Image credit: John Lennon