Paul Morley's Yoko Ono Biography Fails to Escape Beatles Shadow

In a review of Paul Morley's new biography 'Love Magic Power Danger Bliss: Yoko Ono and the Avant-Garde Diaspora', critic Chris Fite-Wassilak argues that the book, despite promising not to mention John Lennon, ultimately defines Ono in negative terms and drowns out her story. The biography covers Ono's first three decades, from her birth in Japan in 1933 to meeting Lennon in London in 1969, but devotes excessive space to the male avant-garde figures like Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, and George Maciunas. Morley's attempt to contextualize Ono's work within the history of happenings and proto-conceptual art is described as energetic but two-dimensional, lacking intimacy and personality. The review notes that Morley's book seems designed for Beatles fans still lamenting the band's breakup rather than offering insight into Ono's artistic practice. Published by Faber at £25, the biography is critiqued for its scattered attention and hyperbolic claims, including referring to Ono as 'the avant-garde Jackie Kennedy'. The review appears in the April & May 2026 issue of ArtReview.