Avant Garde #11 (1970) – John Lennon Erotic Lithographs, Yoko Ono Art Collaboration

Description

Published from 1968 to 1971, Avant Garde magazine was a short-lived but visually daring cultural experiment edited by Ralph Ginzburg and designed by Herb Lubalin. Each issue fused radical politics, modern art, and graphic innovation, with content ranging from Gustav Klimt and W.H. Auden to explorations of censorship, sexuality, and psychedelia. Issue #11, released in 1970, is among the most infamous of the run—featuring “Wedded Bliss,” a portfolio of erotic lithographs by John Lennon that pushed boundaries both artistic and social.

Lennon’s line drawings in this issue are raw, intimate, and entirely centered on his relationship with Yoko Ono. Far from sensational or gratuitous, the lithographs are part of a personal, ongoing collaboration between the two artists—acts of love turned into visual gesture. Yoko’s influence is everywhere: in the subject matter, the minimalist confidence of the lines, and the unapologetic visibility of their intimacy. At a time when even public affection was a radical gesture for this couple, these works became a kind of defiant visual manifesto—blending humor, vulnerability, and erotic honesty into a stark, hand-drawn record of their union.

A must for collectors of radical 20th-century print culture, Lennon / Beatle ephemera, and the fearless, fleeting genius of Avant Garde magazine.