The Museum of Modern Art commissioned Yoko Ono to create a full-page insert, in place of a traditional advertisement,
for publication in the New York Times. The resulting artwork, Peace Is Power, invites the newspaper’s readers to add color to those areas of the world that they believe “need peace.” The participants were asked to send their contributions
to the artist’s attention at MoMA. A rotating selection of the submissions, on view here, is updated periodically as new contributions are received.
Yoko Ono has been creating instruction pieces since the early 1950s. Her 1964 book, Grapefruit, compiled years’ worth
of instructions, such as “Listen to a heart beat” and “Step in all the puddles in the city.” Peace Is Power represents the latest chapter in the artist’s long history of engagement with MoMA, from her unsanctioned exhibition in 1971, Museum of Modern [F]art, to her 2015 retrospective, Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971. Throughout her practice, Ono has consistently made use of mass media in an effort to address the public directly, encourage their participation, and promote humanitarian concerns.
Commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art for publication in the New York Times on September 10, 2017