Yoko Ono Celebrates Her Octogenarian Era With New Guggenheim Bilbao Exhibition

Yoko Ono is 80 and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao welcomes a unique retrospective of one of the most influential artists of our times—a living legend who holds a special place in contemporary art, music and experimental film. Half-A-Wing Show — A Retrospective runs from 14 March to 1 September 2014.
 
The exhibition, sponsored by Seguros Bilbao, includes nearly 200 pieces throughout the entire third floor of the Museum. Visitors will discover more than five decades of creativity, from the mid-1950s to the present, in the multi-faceted artistic universe of Yoko Ono. The exhibition includes some of her most recent creations, as well as a new version of the installation and performanceMoving Mountains.
 
Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Tokyo) has been recognized as one of the most outstanding avant-garde artists for over sixty years. She is a pioneer in many of the artistic fields to which she has dedicated her life, and is considered to be one of the precursors to conceptual art, film and performance art. She is also a key figure in the music world, having produced numerous albums over the years.

As you travel through the third floor of the Museum, you are led through the artist’s diverse spectrum of mediums used throughout her extensive career: from plastic arts to drawings, poetry, film, music, installations, video and performance art, among others. The heterogeneous shapes and mediums of her work challenge conventional ideas of art and raise questions that are essential to the human existence.
 
This fascinating journey delves into the main recurring themes and ideas that have driven her career, including her belief in the power of the imagination, her political commitment, her sense of humor and the absurd, her sensitivity to global conflicts, and the role of women in society. Ideas inspired both by her own life and universal questions have driven her to adopt a prominent position at the forefront of movements such as peace and feminism.
 
Yoko Ono’s work is based on ideas, some of which are manifested in the form of objects while others remain immaterial, enriched by certain traditional Asian elements. A poetic dimension can often be denoted in her work – a subtle sense of humor and an attitude of social criticism anchored in concepts of unity, trust, and balance.

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