The Artwork of John Lennon On Display in a Pop-Up Gallery in SoHo

Yoko Ono is presenting the artwork of the late Beatles star, John Lennon in a 10,000-square foot brick building at 76 Wooster Street (between Spring and Broome) for a celebration of what would have been John Lennon's 71st birthday. The show is open to the public. Over 100 of Lennon's limited-edition drawings and reprinted song lyrics are on display at the "Gimme Some Truth" exhibit. According to published reports, the artwork for sale consists of lithographs, seriographs and copper etchings of the pen, pencil and Japanese sumi ink drawings of John Lennon, and each are “signed” in the Japanese tradition with Mr. Lennon’s “chop,” a personalized red stamp which in his case reads “Like a Cloud, Beautiful Sound.” Also available are lithographs of some rare Bag One drawings, the portfolio of wedding drawings and controversial erotic works (some depicting himself and his wife), which Mr. Lennon gave Ms. Ono at their wedding. The 100 pieces were created by Lennon between 1964 and 1980. A portion of the works will be up for sale with proceeds benefiting Citymeals-on-Wheels, a meal delivery service for senior citizens. The exhibit runs through October 10. 

Remembering JOHN LENNON's 70th Birthday at Central Park's Strawberry Fields

Fans circled the "Imagine" mosaic graced with flowers, candles and flag.

Part of the huge crowd that gathered at Strawberry Fields to celebrate the life and music of John Lennon who lived in The Dakota (covered by the trees in the background) with his wife Yoko Ono. On December 8, 1980, Mr. Lennon was shot in the back at the entrance to The Dakota.

Video from sunemax

Thousands of fans gathered today at Central Park's Strawberry Fields to remember slain British superstar singer-songwriter-activist, JOHN LENNON who would have turned 70 today. A crush of fans, young and old alike circled the flower-covered "Imagine" mosaic and sang Lennon songs. Some fans brought flowers, photographs, notes and paintings to celebrate the artist who just wanted to give peace a chance.

The Dakota

The building has high gables and deep roofs with a profusion of dormers, terracotta spandrels and panels, niches, balconies and balustrades giving it a North German Renaissance character.

The Dakota's entrance where former Beatle John Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980 by Mark David Chapman. As of 2009, Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono still has an apartment in the building.

Detail of the Iron Fence

Tourists snapping pictures of The Dakota from a double decker tourist bus

One of the most popular tourist attraction on the Upper Westside of Manhattan is The Dakota, an apartment building located in the northwest corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West. I took these photos of the historic building earlier this morning on my way to Central Park.

From wikipedia:

The architectural firm of Henry Janeway Hardenbergh was commissioned to do the design for Edward Clark, head of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. The firm also designed the Plaza Hotel. The building's high gables and deep roofs with a profusion of dormers, terracotta spandrels and panels, niches, balconies and balustrades give it a North German Renaissance character, an echo of a Hanseatic townhall. Nevertheless, its layout and floor plan betray a strong influence of French architectural trends in housing design that had become known in New York in the 1870s. According to popular legend, the Dakota was so named because at the time it was built, the Upper West Side of Manhattan was sparsely inhabited and considered as remote as the Dakota Territory. However, the earliest recorded appearance of this account is in a 1933 newspaper story. It is more likely that the building was named "The Dakota" because of Clark's fondness for the names of the new western states and territories. High above the 72nd Street entrance, the figure of a Dakota Indian keeps watch. The Dakota was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976. The Dakota is built in a square-shape around a central courtyard, accessible through the arched passage of the main entrance, a porte cochère large enough that horse-drawn carriages could pass through, letting their passengers disembark sheltered from the weather. In the Dakota multi-story stable building at 72nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue, elevators lifted carriages to upper floors. The "Dakota Stables" building was still in operation as a garage until February 2007, but it is now slated to be developed by the Related Companies into a multimillion dollar condominium project. The general layout of the apartments is also in the French style of the period, with all major rooms not only connected to each other en filade in the traditional way, but also accessible from a hall or corridor, an arrangement that allowed a natural migration for guests from one room to another, especially on festive occasions, yet gave service staff discreet separate circulation patterns that offered service access to the main rooms. The principal rooms, such as parlors or the master bedroom, face the street, while the dining room, kitchen, and other auxiliary rooms are oriented towards the courtyard. Apartments are thus aired from two sides, which was a relative novelty in New York at the time. (In the Stuyvesant building, which was built in 1869, a mere ten years earlier, and which is considered New York's first apartment building in the French style, many apartments have windows to one side only.) Some of the drawing rooms were 49 ft (15 m) long, and many of the ceilings are 14 ft (4.3 m) high; the floors are inlaid with mahogany, oak, and cherry (although in the apartment of Clark, the building's founder, some floors were famously inlaid with sterling silver). Originally, the Dakota had 65 apartments with four to twenty rooms, no two alike. These apartments are accessed by staircases and elevators placed in the four corners of the courtyard. Separate service stairs and elevators serving the kitchens are located in mid-block. Built to cater for the well-to-do, the Dakota featured many amenities and a modern infrastructure that was exceptional for the time. The building has a large dining hall; meals could also be sent up to the apartments by dumbwaiters. Electricity was generated by an in-house power plant, and the building has central heating. Besides servants' quarters, there was a playroom and a gymnasium under the roof. (In later years, these spaces on the tenth floor were—for economic reasons—converted into apartments, too.) The lot of the Dakota also comprised a garden and private croquet lawns and a tennis court behind the building between 72nd and 73rd Streets.

In several movies, the exterior of the Dakota has been featured including Rosemary's Baby directed by Roman Polanski, and Vanilla Sky, directed by Cameron Crowe.

TRIBUTE TO JOHN LENNON

Former Beatle JOHN LENNON continues to be mourned in Strawberry Fields, a memorial garden area in Central Park, across the street from the Dakota building where Lennon and Yoko Ono lived. Shortly after his death, Yoko Ono donated $1 million for its maintenance. Strawberry Fields has become a gathering place for tributes on Lennon's birthday and on the anniversary of his death. Captured above is the scene on the night of December 8. Young and old alike, fans and admirers of Lennon gathered around the IMAGINE mosaic which is filled with flowers, photos, candles, and offerings.

On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot four times in the back by Mark Chapman who had asked the former Beatle for his autograph only hours before he laid in wait and killed him.

Chapman pleaded guilty to gunning down Mr Lennon and is currently serving life in Attica prison near New York. In October 2004 he failed for the third time to secure his release.

He said he had heard voices in his head telling him to kill the world-famous musician. Twenty years after his death millions of fans paid tribute to Mr Lennon in his home town of Liverpool and in New York.

His widow launched a campaign against gun violence in the United States to mark the anniversary.

IMAGINE: Remembering JOHN LENNON

This is an image that I made recently of the mosaic at STRAWBERRY FIELDS, the section in Central Park dedicated to the memory of JOHN LENNON. Today is LENNON's birthday.



From Wikipedia.com:

Strawberry Fields is a 2.5 acre landscaped section in New York's Central Park that is dedicated to the memory of musician John Lennon, and named after his song, "Strawberry Fields Forever". It was designed by Bruce Kelly (1948-1993), the chief landscape architect for the Central Park Conservancy. Strawberry Fields was inaugurated on Lennon's birthday, 9 October 1985, by his widow Yoko Ono, who had underwritten the project.

The entrance to the memorial is located on Central Park West at West 72nd Street, directly across from the Dakota Apartments, where Lennon lived for the latter part of his life and where he was murdered. The memorial is a triangular piece of land falling away on the two Park sides, and its focal point is a circular pathway mosaic of inlaid stones, a reproduction of a mosaic from Pompeii, made by Italian craftsmen as a gift from the city of Naples. In the center of the mosaic is a single word, the title of Lennon's famous song: "Imagine". Along the borders of the triangular area surrounding the mosaic are benches which are endowed in memory of other individuals and maintained by the Central Park Conservancy. Along a path toward the southeast, a plaque lists the nations which contributed to building the memorial. Yoko Ono, who keeps apartments in The Dakota, contributed over a million dollars for the landscaping and for the upkeep endowment.
It is not uncommon for the memorial to be covered with flowers, candles in glasses, and other belongings left behind by Lennon fans. On Lennon's birthday (October 9th) and on the anniversary of his death (December 8th), people gather to sing songs and pay tribute, staying late into what is often a cold night.