from the archives

Yoko Ono in New York

Photo: Konstantin Sergeyev

Accompanying the opening this week of “Yoko Ono: One Woman Show†at MoMA is a feature by Lindsay Zoladz. But New York has been covering Yoko for years. Here’s a brief timeline.

“Here at the Dakota,†1978

By Delia Ephron

“Residents of the Dakota feared that the Lennons would appear naked in the courtyard once they moved in. But they proved amicable neighbors: Ono even brought sashimi to a courtyard party, with the names of the host’s children spelled out in peas.â€

“A Talk With Yoko,†1981

By Philip Norman

She invited the writer over five months after Lennon’s death.

Photo: Konstantin Sergeyev

“John Lennon’s Killer,†1981

By Craig Unger

A cover story on Mark David Chapman.

“Double Fantasy,†1985

By John Leonard

“So what if John and Yoko were silly or obtuse?â€

“The Flux Stops Here,†1989

By Kay Larson

“Ono’s 1989 one person show at the Whitney commodified her Fluxus art from the sixties — Painting to be Stepped On is fenced with guards, Painting to Hammer a Nail In is bronze, unhammerable. ‘She doesn’t need the money … so you have to find another explanation for this cynical transformation of a free idea into a commodity.’† 

“Yoko Lite,†1994

By Ruth G. Davis

This 1994 profile highlighted new sides of Ono — not the dragon lady nor the tragic window, but the artist and the mother with a retrospective at the Whitney and a dutiful son.

Photo: Konstantin Sergeyev

“Sean Lennon,†1998

by Ethan Smith

Yoko is Mom. John was Dad. There is only one person in the world for whom this situation could seem absolutely normal.

“Yoko, Now,†2005

By Amy Larocca

“The surprisingly sexy septuagenarian.â€

Photo: Konstantin Sergeyev

“60 Minutes With Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon,†2009

By Tim Murphy

“At the kitchen table in the Dakota with the world’s most famous mother-son music collaborators.â€

Yoko Ono in New York