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On September 27, 1971 the Post Standard posted an editorial by an unnamed person who did not want Yoko's art to be exhibited at the Everson Museum of Art. This was the beginning of a fued between members of the community, Everson Museum and John and Yoko themselves:
Here is the original editorial:
Art or Hokum
No Writer Listed
The Post Standard
September 27, 1971
The Everson Museum of Art, which has been heavy on modern art and light on traditional, will go one step farther next month with, get this: the artwork of Yoko Ono, current wife and former other woman of ex-Beatle John Lennon, and as an added treat for today's Bobbysoxers, both Yoko and John will appear at the show. Lennon will also have some work shown.
Yoko, the artist, is described as part of the early Andy Warhol contingent. One of their works includes a ladder on which one climbs to reach a painting on the ceiling, to which a spyglass is attached. Looking through it, one sees the word "yes." Another is hammer a nail in. For five shillings, a person could hammer a nail into a block of wood.
The Everson says most of her works here will invite active participation by the viewer. This includes a water event in which participants provide the containers while Yoko Ono provides the water.
The art museum promises newly conceived pieces executed specifically for the exhibition. Lennon, for his part, has a work he has exhibited, consisting of a toilet, which, when flushed, plays one of his songs.
James Herithas director of the museum, says Yoko's work has long deserved major recognition. He called it an international form of art of which she is one of the earliest and most brilliant exponents. We wonder, however, whether the Everson is presenting her first one-man museum show because it is great art, or whether the exhibition was merely the means of bringing to the Everson a man whose former group he once described as "more popular than Christ." If the latter is the case, the Everson will add greatly to its normal attendance, but as a tremendous loss of good taste and the respect of the art world.
The next day, the Everson Museum of Art sent a response into the newspaper
Everson Staff Defends Yoko's Show
Written by the Staff at the Everson Museum of Art
The Post Standard
September 28, 1971
We are glad to publish the following letter, received yesterday afternoon, from the staff of the Everson Museum of Art in response to yesterday morning's editorial. It is good to note the loyalty and staunch support of the staff to the new policies of the Everson Museum.
Director James Harithas has said that he intends to make the Everson the most talked-about museum in the country. We hope he does, but not through sensationalism at the expense of good taste. Skyrocketing attendance figures are not necessarily the best basis for judging the worth of the museum. This letter comes not from an irate individual, but rather from the entire curatorial, research, administrative, and support staff of the Everson Museum of Art (EMA):
As you and your readers are well aware, EMA has undergone some fairly substantial changes since the appointment of Mr. James Harithus as director. Accompanying a basic change in the definition of a museum role, the museum has been taking great care to expand its scope of services to the entire community, i.e. our expanded educational function encompassing both the newly formed neighborhood art center as well as a revitalized in-building program.
In terms of reaction to our new exhibition schedule, our attendance figures have skyrocketed, membership figures have steadily climbed, and the feedback from the community has been favorable. The air show, for example, pointed out the vital connection between art and environment, as well as the correlation between artists and the environment. Internationally, the show has been met with great acclaim. Locally, the show broke all attendance records at EMA.
What we are getting to is this: we feel that out of ignorance, EMA is being unjustly and prejudicially defamed by your newspaper, and we take strong exception to your tactics. Further, we are both insulted and angered by your obvious lack of regard for artists and the ideals of art in general. Your comments on Yoko Ono's personal life strike us as being a very nadir of poor taste and judgment. This aspect should be of no concern to you or your readers. Her art is her statement. Your blanket condemnation of modern art is an outrage to any sensibility. We are truly embarrassed for you.
Finally, we would like to add that we stand 100% behind the goals and plans of the Everson Museum and its director. I would like to feel that the entire community understands and supports our institution as well. Towards that end, we shall endeavor.
Between the printing of this and the start of the exhibit, various people in the community wrote into the paper on both sides of the debate. Then John and Yoko became involved. Here is the next editorial by the paper as well as the letter John and Yoko sent.
They Thrive on Publicity
No Writer Listed
Post Standard
October 7, 1971
Yoko Ono and John Lennon, and not incidentally director James Harithas of the Everson Museum of Art, certainly know how to get publicity. Her one-woman show, This Is Not Here, which opens Saturday at the Everson, might have attracted attention only to the many 1000s of idolizing youngsters who want little more out of life than just the chance to see Yoko and John. Some of them were paying $50 each for autographed posters at the museum yesterday, but a critical editorial in these columns about 10 days ago had the audacity to question whether what Ono does is really art. Suddenly, the famous pair became controversial, even among adults, and the Post Standard began to get "you, cur," and "we love you" notes from artists.
Ever since staffers, oldsters, and youngsters of every degree of knowledge and ignorance of art, Ono and Lennon dashed off their sentiments in no uncertain terms as soon as they arrived in town Tuesday, and their paper epistle is reproduced on this page. Wonder how much we could have gotten for those two signatures?
We are not too excited about all this, except that we hope, as Chief Sardino and members of the Everson board do, that the mobs of worshippers won't mutilate that handsome Ieoh Ming Pei building when they invade it for John Lennon's birthday party.
Like many other Everson supporters and members, we wonder a bit where all the cash is coming from for the flood of expensive printing that has heralded Yoko's show. Perhaps they'll take enough at $1 a head from non-members to pay off last year's $125,000 museum deficit.
Oh yes, for the comfort of the friends of the museum, who have been enraged by the provocatively scandalous titles of the Ono-Leenon films, which will be shown between October 15 and October 22, we talked with someone yesterday who had seen them. Don't be fooled by these titles, he advised. The films may not be good, but they're not dirty.
The next day, October 8, John and Yoko used the Post Standard to place an ad in the personal's section to thank everyone.
Meanwhile, more editorial letters kept pouring in both for and against Yoko's art.
