Jonathan Stone for Art-Sheep
John and Yoko first met in 1966, when John attended Ono’s art exhibition at the Indica Gallery in London. Long before their affair, John’s divorce from Cynthia Lennon and their wedding in 1969, Ono was just an aspiring artist living in New York, being mentored by John Cage.
In 1951, Ono was the first woman ever to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University, Tokyo. After two semesters, she dropped out and joined her family in New York where she enrolled in Sarah Lawrence College. In 1956 she married Toshi Ichiyanagi, a famous Japanese composer of avant-garde music, and in 1963 American producer, Anthony Cox, with whom she had a daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox. The couple worked together for years, even after Ono began having an affair with Lennon, until their divorce in 1969.