John and Yoko show heads for Museum of Liverpool

An exhibition dedicated to John Lennon and Yoko Ono will remain open at the Museum of Liverpool until November.

The decision was taken to extend the run of Double Fantasy - John and Yoko from the original closing date of April because of demand.

Since it opened in the waterfront museum's Wondrous Place gallery last May it has been seen by more than 300,000 people.

Double Fantasy – John & Yoko charts the couple’s partnership as creatives and also as campaigners for peace, as well as the ongoing Imagine Peace campaign.

It includes personal objects along with art, music and film produced by the pair, all drawn from Yoko Ono’s own private collection. Some of it has never been put on show before.

The 85-year-old (pictured above by Mark McNulty), who returned to the waterfront museum to see the exhibition ahead of its opening, said: “I’m really thrilled to open this show here in Liverpool, a city which has shown me so much love and kindness and which I always love visiting.

"I hope when people see this show they have a sense of the incredible relationship John and I had, and also the power of love. I love you John!”

John and Yoko. Photo by Keith McMillan

She added: “We were a very simple couple just loving each other every day and I just wanted to show the simple truth of us. In our personal life we were pretty simple people, and we made all sorts of things with love for each other. Everything was made out of love.

“We found that we were both very strongly interested in world peace. I feel John and I are still working together. I always feel his warmth next to me.

The then-Beatle and the Japanese-American avant garde artist first met at London’s Indica Gallery in the mid-1960s. They married in 1969, famously spending their honeymoon in a Bed In for peace.

The exhibition features hand-written lyrics to songs like Woman, Give Peace a Chance and In My Life, original artwork including Yoko’s Ceiling Painting/Yes Painting and Apple, as well as The Daily Howl, the hand-made magazine John created to entertain classmates at Quarry Bank, his wire-rimmed glasses and iconic New York City T-shirt, items from their wedding outfits, and John’s Green Card.

Sharon Granville, director of the exhibition for National Museums Liverpool, said: “We’ve worked closely with Yoko and her team for several years to tell an intimate story of the couple’s relationship and work, using her and John’s words wherever it was possible.

“Setting this against a backdrop of the volatile late 1960s – Vietnam War, civil rights protests and social unrest and revolution across Europe and the USA - reveals just how creatively and bravely the couple harnessed their fame and influence to express their radical ideas, challenge preconceptions of the role of artists in society and promote universal themes of peace, love and equality, which continue to have strong resonance and importance today.”

Double Fantasy – John & Yoko is at the Museum of Liverpool until November 3.