Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono
Grapefruit, 1964
5542-BK

5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. (14 x 14 cm)

Tokyo. Wunternaum Press.
Small square 8vo. Unpaginated. Original cream wrappers, printed title in
black to front wrapper. First edition of Yoko Ono's written Conceptual
compendium, this copy with a presentation in blue ink to initial blank in
Japanese and English, to Nigel Samuel and his wife Sue: 'Spring o spring
Why don't I fly in the sky tonight' / 'To Nigel & Sue, / Yoko / Spring
1967, / London'.

Nigel Samuel was the brother of Nicky Samuel, known as Nicky Weymouth.
Nicky, who knew Andy Warhol and many of the other great personalities of
the 60s, worked for Yoko when she was married to Tony Cox.

'Grapefruit' contains a series of 'event scores' that were designed to
replace the physical work of art. Often considered a Fluxus artwork, in
fact Grapefruit was originally published by Ono's own imprint, Wunternaum
Press in Tokyo in an edition of 500.

Event scores were developed by a number of artists attending John Cage's
Experimental Music Composition classes at the New School for Social
Research in New York. Whilst Ono did not attend these informal lessons,
her husband at the time, Ichiyanagi Toshi, (an experimental musician)
did, and Toshi and Ono became regulars of Cage's circle of friends by
1959.

After leaving New York in 1962, where she had exhibited at George
Maciunas' AG Gallery, amongst others, Yoko Ono's then-husband Anthony Cox
suggested she collect her scores together. Maciunas, had apparently been
trying to reach her in Tokyo with the aim of printing a similar book in
New York, as part of his series of Fluxkits, but his letters hadn't
reached her; she sent some of the scores and a prepublication
advertisement to be published in his Fluxus newspaper in February 1964
when contact was finally established.

The name 'Grapefruit' was chosen as the title because Ono believed the
fruit to be a hybrid of an orange and a lemon, and thus a reflection of
herself as 'a spiritual hybrid'. It also seems likely that it is a
playful allusion to Brecht's Water Yam.

This first edition contains over 150 'instruction works'; virtually all
are in English, with about a third translated into Japanese. They are
divided into five sections; Music, Painting, Event, Poetry and Object.
The instructions are preceded by dedications to figures including John
Cage, La Monte Young, Nam June Paik, Isamu Noguchi and Peggy Guggenheim,
and also includes documentation relating to Ono's recent exhibitions and
performances.

[Ref. Kellein - Frohliche Wissenschaft. Das Archiv Sohm, p. 88].

Price Upon Request