"If art were to redeem man, if could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness" (John Lennon, 1968)
In many ways John Lennon was truly a renaissance man whose insights and perspective helped shape the sensibility of the contemporary mind. While music will certainly be remembered as his most popular art form, he was keenly interested in and loved both his literature end his art. Studying from 1957–1960 at Liverpool Art Institution.
As early as 1968 Lennon began moving toward a return to visual art, which had been a preoccupation during his childhood and adolescence. While Lennon painted at that time in a traditionally way, no major work from that period has come down to us. He was primarily interested in drawing and favored the creative loose sketch.
The lithographs exhibited here were produced from drawings done in two periods from 1968 to 1969. Lennon biographer Anthony Fawcett and producer-agent Ed Newman, who had already worked with Man Ray, Dalí, Henry Moore and other prominent contemporary artists, selected twelve images from hundreds drawn. Newman decided to use the London-based Churn Studio to proof the twelve images plus a title page and impression of a Lennon alphabet poem which would serve as an introduction to the edition of three hundred sets of 14 Iithographs each. They were produced using a specially treated litho stock, which allowed Lennon to draw on paper in his usual manner. The images were then transferred from the paper onto sensitized zinc plates, then printed in the traditional way.
Ted Lapidus, Paris foremost clothing designer, produced a handsome white Ieather carrying sachel for the edition.
The Bag One series was first publicly exhibited in January of 1970 at the London Art Gallery on New Bond Street. On the second day the exhibition was closed by Scotland Yard, with the eight erotic lithographs confiscated as "Indecent". Several months later, after a lengthy trial and investigation, the case was dismissed.
The Bag One lithographs have been called spontaneous and tender figurative images which, taken together, celebrate John's love for Yoko and their life together.
While they tend to remind one of Matisse or even Picasso, they speak to us in a unique language of their own. Lennon's skill is expressed in a smooth, flowing, almost voluptuous line where both positive and negative areas sing with a celebration of the event which is depicted. While they are certainly significant as the only graphic work by one of the most important cultural figures of our time, they are also important as works of art which celebrate human love and communication.
