Giving peace a chance through Lennon's art

This was the dragon lady? She sounded more like Maria von Trapp. The widow of John Lennon knows what the world thinks of her. 'If people think that [of me] it's fine,' she says calmly. 'There are people who call me a professional widow. I'm not, but I'd like to think that maybe it is because I handled it all so professionally. They call me the dragon lady but, you know, the dragon is such a strong animal. Maybe I should take that as a compliment. All I know is that I am trying to be myself and doing the best I can to cope.

'In a way, I am taking it in a very Chinese way. Everything is a lesson and a challenge. What other people say about you is not important.

'Sure, I get negative emotions [but] the most important thing is your own personal life, how you are and your attitudes. You have to create your own karma. That is what I am most concerned with.' But on a less self-indulgent tone, Ono says she is also concerned with keeping the memory of her late husband alive and to spread his word of peace and love to the world.

Hence, the reason for our late-night conversation: Imagine - The Art of John Lennon, a travelling exhibition of the late Beatle's drawings and lyric sheets which is arriving in Hong Kong this week.

'John was not only my husband but also Sean's and Julian's father,' says Ono. 'It is important that his memory is kept intact. He meant something to a lot of people. In this world there is so much depression and violence. John was very much for peace and very into this role reversal thing between men and women. He tried his best to understand women's plight. He was always very caring about that and it comes out in his art work and songs.

'It is a bleak society we live in and there are a lot of art works that show violence. That's why we need to circulate his work. It reminds people of the family and family values, and of the other side of life.' Since the death of Lennon at the hands of a crazed fan in 1980, Ono has committed herself to introducing his works, usually ink line drawings, to galleries and his fans.

'You know, John was already an artist when he was a very young boy. And he was accepted by the Liverpool College of Art,' comes the line that Ono has repeated numerous times in the past 16 years.

'I am very proud of his work. John was an incredible artist and people in the art world are beginning to realise he is very successful because of his art as well.' The exhibition of Lennon's art is, in many ways, also a way for Ono to fulfil a dream that the late musician always had. Lennon had his first major gallery show in 1970 when Bag One went on display in London. It only lasted a few hours, before police removed some of the drawings on the grounds that they were obscene.

'He was waiting to do many more shows but the doors were not open to him because he was more famous as a pop star. It is important now to bring it out to the public,' Ono says.

'I hope that it will give John's fans a chance to see that he was not only a songwriter. He was talented in so many things. He was a renaissance man. He would want to jump into new media and new attitudes. If he were here today, he'd be into the Internet; that was the kind of person he was.' Lennon's Bag One series which he created in 1969, chronicling his honeymoon with Ono, is housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Ono has listed 1,600 Lennon drawings but not all have gone on display.

In 1986, Ono decided to have the exhibits travel and created a series of limited edition prints that go on sale after each show. The money raised from the sales goes towards various charities, in particular the Spirit Foundation which Ono and Lennon set up. Each print sells for US$1,000 (HK$7,730) to US$15,000.

She is rather pleased with Hong Kong as the first Asian site outside Japan, even though she will not be present at the exhibition.

'Hong Kong is an important place in Asia and I think it works out very well,' she says. 'In the beginning, it was a must that I come to the opening of the shows when it was touring but I've left them to work independently. I don't want to overshadow John's work.' Each year Ono chooses several limited edition prints to release using both seriographic and lithographic processes. The Hong Kong exhibition will include more than 100 limited edition prints and about 10 to 12 original prints, and the premiere of a new limited edition set called Fame.

Ono sees the release of the limited edition prints and making them available to Lennon's fans as necessary, not only for the charities but also to make sure Lennon's fame is not exploited.

'It is important that his work should get out. If I don't release these, there will be a lot of fake things circulating. There already are fake things but the only reason why they're not doing so well is because there are real ones available,' says the 63-year-old Ono, who has recently been touring with son Sean's band, IMA.

A lot of the drawings are personal glimpses into the Lennons' lives.

Lennon turned many of their everyday experiences into a black-and-white visual diary: there are pictures of their son, Sean - who has just turned 21 - during different stages of his growing up, and there are drawings of personal moments in his relationship with Ono.

Ono does not mind that so much of their personal life is on display to the world. 'We exposed our personal life quite a lot,' she says with humour. 'I don't worry about that.

'I mean Picasso was always drawing his wife too. The fact that he was a pop star is still affecting people. In art, what isn't personal? Everything is personal. And this is John's own artistic expression.' Ono would like to see a permanent location for Lennon's works, although for the most part, she says she is keeping the originals for Sean or to donate them to a museum somewhere. But Ono is determined her late husband's work will be treated with the respect it deserves.

'I don't want to put his work in a museum that treats it badly and tucks it in a corner in the basement somewhere. They have to give it a good place where it can be a permanent exhibit,' she says.

Then, Ono relays the message that my 20 minutes is up. 'It was nice talking to you,' says the firm but gentle voice, before the line goes dead and I am left wondering if I had been talking to the 'professional widow' or just a woman who loved and respected her husband tremendously.

Imagine - The Art Of John Lennon, October 17-21, 10am-9.30pm, Regency Rooms, Hyatt Regency Hotel. Free admission. Call: 2311-1234 ext 2336

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