John Lennon: The Collected Artwork

Music and art critic Gutterman curates a lifetime of drawings by musician John Lennon, with text summarizing his life story, artistic style, and major themes and techniques. He begins with Lennon's childhood and attendance at Liverpool College of Art, where his portraiture already exhibited a %E2%80%9Cnaturally surrealist bent." In a later series of self-portraits from the 1970s, the artist is represented as %E2%80%9Calternatively whimsical and wild, anguished and awestruck," notably in a frenzied sketch of him perched atop the globe. The 1970s also found Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, in Japan, where he began incorporating Japanese words and phrases into his work along with elements of the ancient art of sumi-e. A highlight is 1979's %E2%80%9CJazz Man," in which a fan greets Lennon on the street, saying, %E2%80%9CI've been getting into Jazz, man!" and receives the response, %E2%80%9CI've been trying to avoid it all my life." An entire chapter is devoted to drawings of Lennon and Ono: resting under a tree, floating on a cloud, and conducting their %E2%80%9Cbed-in" with paparazzi looking on. Rounding out the aesthetics of the book are lovely photographs of Lennon, alone and with Ono, and handwritten song lyrics. This collection pays tasteful homage to Lennon's lesser-known calling as a visual artist. (Jan.)