STRIP LAS VEGAS MAGAZINE

THE LENNON COLLECTION

JOHN LENNON/BAG ONE #275 of 300

ART AND OBSCENITY IN 1970'S LONDON

The same year that the Beatles decided to call it quits (1970), Lennon opened his artistic wings to reveal yet another talent to the world in an Exhibition as a conceptual artist. His erotic works of art entitled: BAG ONE would stir up much more than the standard fare of comments from critics. The London Arts Gallery, located on New Bond Street in London, held the Exhibition originally for the duration of two weeks, yet on the 2nd day, the show was raided by the Scotland Yard on reports of public obscenity. 8 of the 14 exhibits within the collection were confiscated, on the grounds that they were considered indecent. Eugene Schuster, the owner of the London Arts Gallery, who was charged with exhibiting “indecent prints” under an obscure 1830 law, said Lennon had exposed his own private sex life “to encourage a more introspective commitment to content by today’s artists who can be so timid.” Lennon had a much more straightforward response regarding his drawings that spanned from his meeting Yoko, getting married, and then depicting the intimate sexual joys of marriage: “It’s just a bit of fun,” the Beatle proclaimed.

The original erotic artworks of Lennon engaged in oral sex with Yoko Ono challenged the conventional morals of 1970’s London and may have escaped conviction for obscenity because of concern at the time that other art collections (including that of the Queen) would be vulnerable to prosecution, as it was stated in a letter sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions by an artist suggesting that, if a prosecution under the newer statute succeeded, even those displaying the work of Rembrandt might be considered fair game in the future. The investigating officer, Detective Inspector Fred Luff, was in no doubt that the lithographs violated public morals, and that Lennon must be depraved. Detective Inspector Luff, who specialized in mounting “celebrity raids”, did not see it that way. He said of the drawings, “Many toilet walls depict works of similar merit. It is perhaps charitable to suggest that they are the work of a sick mind.” The case, held in April of that same year, was dismissed after a three-week trial by the magistrate St. John Harmsworth, in which he ruled that the gallery was not a “public place” following the terms of an 1839 precedent, and with his decision that John’s prints were “unlikely to deprave or corrupt.”
The 1976 biography “One Day at a Time”, authored by Anthony Fawcett (John and Yoko’s assistant appointed in 1969), tells the story behind John’s controversial erotic lithographs, giving us the inside scoop. ~excerpts edited from Anthony Fawcett’s “One Day at a Time”:

“It was easy for John to talk about being receptive to new ideas but the discipline to begin projects and see them through to completion was often another story. When in 1968 I suggested the lithographs, John, like I, had no idea that the project would become such an involved and drawn out affair. It was not until over a year later that the lithographs were finally published, and a second set based on the Chinese I Ching symbols were never completed. The first attempts I made to interest John in lithography met with only a vague, distant response. The technicalities of the process seemed alien to him, accustomed as he was to the spontaneity and simplicity of cartoon drawing. John had always considered basic drawing, doodling and sketching his forte, as they best suited his impulsive creative methods; he liked to translate the image from his head to the paper as rapidly as possible and with the least amount of fuss. Often his drawing, like his rhetoric, could not keep pace with his meteoric rush of ideas. John was slightly more enthusiastic about the project when, with the help of publisher Ed Newman and the Curwen Studio, I devised a way to shortcut the complicated procedure of working directly onto stone blocks or zinc plates. By using specially treated “litho paper”, which I had sent out to his house along with an array of suitable brushes, litho ink, and crayons, John would be able to draw or paint in his usual manner. The images could later be transferred from the paper onto sensitized zinc plates by means of an advanced technical process, and the lithographs printed in the traditional way.

Nothing was heard from John for three or four months after the materials were sent to him. I had all but given up, certain that they were lying forgotten in some dark closet. But several weeks later after John and Yoko had returned to England from their wedding and the Amsterdam Bed-In, I had a phone call from Yoko. John had taken the litho paper with him, had made a series of drawings of the marriage and honeymoon, and was now anxious to see how they would look as lithographs. The collection of work that I later picked up from John was a veritable potpourri of paintings, ink line drawings, cartoons, and doodles. Yoko was the main subject; there were many portraits and nudes of her. There were also a few evocative ink sketches of scenes such as the wedding ceremony, the two of them walking together in Paris, and an impressionistic rendering of the Bed-In. Ed Newman and I selected four images, which when printed would give John a good indication of the versatility of the translation process from litho paper to actual lithograph. Several months passed and Ed came into Apple and carefully laid out the prints on John and Yoko’s desk. When he saw them, John was ecstatic, oohing and ahhing with childlike enthusiasm, laughing, wildly gesticulating and obviously impressed at the results. He seemed thrilled by the new dimension his drawings had taken on, master-printed on the thick luxurious Arches paper. Yoko, too, was excited for John and watched his exuberance with a kind of motherly pride. Within a couple of minutes John had decided very definitely-yes, he did want his lithographs published and he had already thought up a title for the set: “Bag One”.

John did more drawings of Yoko, a series of totally intimate drawings. They were smaller and more detailed than his earlier sketches and I was impressed with their vitality, their simplicity of line, and especially the overall quality of the work. John’s draftsmanship had improved considerably since his first efforts. Twelve images were selected for the final set of lithographs, half from the erotic set and half from the original drawings. John gave Ed Newman and myself carte blanche to make the choice and we picked the most vibrant images that would work together to create an interesting thematic collection.

During these months, I had a meeting with Salvador Dali, who was anxious to work with John on some incredible project. (John never seemed interested in Dali’s many attempts to get together with him.)

John became more involved, in his on and off way, and came to visit the Curwen Studio to see the printing process in action. While there, he created the image for the front piece, a simple sketch of himself crouched on the ground holding Yoko, which he drew directly onto a zinc plate. John was fascinated by the huge Heidelberg presses and watched intently as one of his own plates was put on for proofing. He had written a long alphabet poem, beginning “A is for parrot which we can clearly see,” as an introduction to the portfolio, and he laboriously copied it out onto another zinc plate so that the poem itself would become a lithograph. This brought the total number of prints in the set up to fourteen, and the edition was to be limited to three hundred sets.

The packaging of Bag One was of prime importance in bringing a cohesive feeling to the whole project. John had already agreed that a specially designed bag for the packaging would bring a cohesive feeling to the whole project. So Ed Newman commissioned Ted Lapidus, the French clothes designer, to create a stylish white carrying bag complete with zips, handles and a lock. Three hundred leather bags, each to hold a complete set of lithographs, were hand-stitched by craftsmen in Italy. As a final touch to the creation, the title Bag One and John’s signature were imprinted in black letters onto the white leather.

When printed, the lithographs would need to be signed by Lennon – every one of the three thousand prints. The location for the signing was Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins’ rustic farmhouse outside Toronto where John and Yoko were hiding out waiting for news of the meeting with Prime Minister Trudeau. It was a surreal sight to see the piles of lithographs almost reaching the ceiling. I wondered whether John would have second thoughts at having to sign every one, but he seemed happy and joked about it. When the time came, John set to work and with the help of Ed and myself, the signing progressed at quite a speed.

John methodically scrawled his name over and over again while we made a kind of human conveyor belt, lifting each lithograph and passing it down the line to its allotted space. This was accomplished with the help of endless cups of tea, many joints, and occasional entertainment from Ronnie, who played us his new album of rock ‘n’ roll songs. John enjoyed the entire two days’ work, and in between signing bouts, we all rode Ski-Doos and Amphicats at high speed around the snow-covered fields.

Bag One, the Erotic Lithographs, were now ready to be seen. The first exhibition of the set was at the London Arts Gallery in January 1970. John could not come to the opening because he and Yoko were staying in the north of Denmark with Kyoko and Tony Cox. The lithographs were on sale for forty pounds each or five hundred and fifty pounds for the set.
The American opening of Bag One was a lavish affair at the Lee Nordness Gallery in New York. I flew over on John’s behalf to film the proceedings. The whole of the New York art scene and all the “beautiful people” turned out. Dali came with his pet ocelot on a leash. The lithographs were on view in a specially created environment, where spectators were asked to remove their shoes. The next month’s issue of the prestigious Avant Garde magazine featured the Erotic Lithographs on the cover and as the major inside spread.”

WHAT IS BAGISM?
On the 14th of June, 1969, during the filming of the David Frost Show, Lennon explained the message in his note: “Love + Peace = Bagism” given to Frost days before filming:

What’s Bagism? It’s like...a tag for what we all do. We’re all in a bag, ya know, and we realized that we came from two bags – I was in this pop bag going round and round in my little clique, and she was in her little avant-garde clique going round and round, and you’re in your little tele clique and they’re in their...ya know? And we all sort of come out and look at each other every now and then, but we don’t communicate. And we all intellectualize about how there is no barrier between art, music, poetry... but we’re still all: ‘I’m a rock ‘n’ roller, he’s a poet...’ So we just came up with the word so you would ask us what Bagism is, and we’d say, ‘WE’RE ALL IN A BAG, BABY!’ SLV

WHAT IS BAGISM?
On the 14th of June, 1969, during the filming of the David Frost Show, Lennon explained the message in his note: “Love + Peace = Bagism” given to Frost days before filming:

SLV would like to thank our friend, Marc Rosenberg, for so kindly sharing his full Collection – #275 of John Lennon’s “BAG ONE” original lithograph sets for display in our Feature. His is one of the few remaining full sets left.

Marc explained that many people sold off a print or two to recoup their initial investment, making only a small handful of Collections still intact, and that each set has its own interesting history. His particular set has been exhibited in a few different settings over the years, with his most treasured exhibition held in a resort deep in the woods of Maine on a lake, owned by the founder of the Diamond Match Corporation. Just after acquiring his set, Marc rented out the “Westways Retreat” of the resort and flew in the gallery’s assistant to talk about the set and the history behind the collection during a chef’s lavishly prepared meal – all in the name of “Lennon” and “Peace”.

Issue 62 featuring: Aiden Ashley, Jana Jordan & Jenny Ryan