Yoko Ono Celebrates 80th Birthday

Famed artist Yoko Ono is celebrating her 80th birthday today, making her the same age as the Golden Gate bridge. Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo on February 18, 1933, and made history as the first female philosophy student at Japan’s prestigious Gakushūin University. After that, she was introduced to the general public as John Lennon’s wife, and, later — when the Beatles broke up supposedly (but probably not) due to her influence — as one of the most divisive figures in pop music history.

Along the way, Yoko Ono built a viable career for herself as an avant garde performance artist. “The world’s most famous unknown artist,” as Lennon once called her, has authored enough “known” work in the decades since to fill out several sweeping retrospectives, including the latest — a 200-piece birthday exhibit currently on at the Schirn Kunsthalle museum in Frankfurt.

Now she keeps herself relevant through her Instagram account, and other social media accounts.

I.M.