LENNON JOHN: (1940-1980)

LENNON JOHN: (1940-1980) English singer, songwriter and musician, founder of the Beatles. An unusual, bold red ink pair of caricatures and small series of notes by in the hand of John Lennon, unsigned, one page (printed Memo stationery), oblong 8vo, n.p., n.d. (c.1969/70). Within a rectangular red box Lennon has penned the titles of several films directed by Yoko Ono, comprising Rape (1969), Two Virgins (1968), Smile (1968; also titled No.5) as well as the title of Lennon and Ono's first joint art exhibition You Are Here, beneath which he has added a pair of caricatures of himself and Yoko Ono, with an unusual cloud like formation above their heads, perhaps representing the plumes of smoke created by smoking marijuana. The page also features two other words ('Smile RA' and 'Smile') both of which Lennon has crossed through. Some very light creasing and with a very slightly irregularly torn upper edge, VG Yoko Ono's films Two Virgins and Smile were both filmed on the same day and premiered alongside each other at the 1968 Chicago Film Festival. Rape was produced for Austrian television. Lennon and Ono's first joint art exhibition You Are Here (To Yoko from John Lennon, With Love) opened at the Robert Fraser Gallery in Duke Street, London, on 1st July 1968. The exhibition largely contained an assortment of charity collection boxes and at the launch ceremony Lennon and Ono released 365 white helium-filled balloons over London. Lennon proclaimed ''I declare these balloons high''. Attached to each was a printed card with the words ''You are here'' on one side, and ''Write to John Lennon, c/o The Robert Fraser Gallery, 69 Duke Street, London, W1'' on the other. Many who returned the cards received a letter signed by Lennon which read: ''Dear Friend, Thank you very much for writing and sending me my balloon back. I'm sending you a badge just to remind you that you are here. Love, John Lennon''. Provenance: The present doodle and notes were previously in the collection of Lizzie Bravo, a Beatles fan who was hand picked by Paul McCartney from outside the EMI Abbey Road Studios to provide backing vocals on the Beatles' song Across the Universe from the charity compilation album No One's Gonna Change Our World (1969).