Yoko Ono

The Most Uncomfortable Portrayals of Celebrities in Art [NSFW]

Celebrities are voracious connoisseurs of art (even Beyoncé loves art history), and are among the few people in this world who can actually afford to collect it, so it makes sense that celebrities often appear as the subjects of artworks. Of course, that’s not to say they always inspire flattering portraits. The recent $1.9 million sale of artist John Currin’s 1991 nude portrait of Golden Girl Bea Arthur has inspired Flavorwire to round up the most awkward portrayals of celebrities in art, from politicians in the buff and doused in urine to installation art, sculpture, and a certain former president’s wet and wild self-portrait. … Read More

The Fascinating Last Photographs of Famous People

This week marks the 32nd anniversary of Rolling Stone’s famous cover featuring a portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. It was the last professional photo captured of the iconic musician, who was killed hours later outside his apartment in New York City. We’re discounting the chilling image fan Paul Goresh took of Lennon and Chapman that fateful morning.

“What is interesting is she said she’d take her top off and I said, ‘Leave everything on’ — not really preconceiving the picture at all,” Leibovitz told the magazine. “Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn’t help but feel that he was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her. I think it was amazing to look at the first Polaroid and they were both very excited. John said, ‘You’ve captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it’ll be on the cover.’ I looked him in the eye and we shook on it.”

Leibovitz had only planned to photograph Lennon, but the image of the couple turned out to be one of her most famous portraits and would define one of the most talked about relationships in pop culture history. We scouted for other fascinating photographs that perhaps offer some insight into the final days of famous people. See more photos after the jump. … Read More

10 Offbeat Artists Who Are Keeping the Old, Weird New York Alive

You moved to New York City for a reason — the culture, the 24-hour bodegas, the street meat, the crazies, the art — and the weirdness that makes New York, New York. Despite the influx of luxury towers and khaki-pantsed nerds, these artists keep on keeping weird, helping to make New York one of the most awesome places on Earth. … Read More

Yoko Ono’s Fashion Line Is Really… Something!

Artist, performer, and socialite extraordinaire Yoko Ono recently premiered her 52-piece menswear collection, which is currently available at New York’s Opening Ceremony, and will eventually hit stores in Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo. Based on drawings she gave to John Lennon as a wedding present in 1969, “Fashions for Men” features bold cuts, bright neons, and hand-shaped appliques in one mystifying mishmosh parade of club wear. “I was inspired to create ‘Fashions for Men,’ amazed at how my man was looking so great,” Ono has said. “I felt it was a pity if we could not make clothes emphasizing his very sexy bod. So I made this whole series with love for his hot bod and gave it to him as a wedding present. You can imagine how he went wild and fell in love with me even more.”

As you might expect after reading that, the resulting collection is quite risqué. It leaves us in awe and with so many questions! Like… Do we really need a couture jock strap? Why are there reception desk bells hanging off of the lovely transparent bra thingy? That sweatshirt drawing print: Are those balls or a butt? Check out some fashionable specimens highlighted at Four Pins, and help us decide. … Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. Just about all live entertainment in New York City was canceled last night, but Jimmy Fallon and David Letterman both braved the storm to tape their shows without audiences. Watch their monologues — and Letterman’s interview with Denzel Washington, who obviously can’t be deterred by even the foulest of weather — at … Read More

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

1. It’s official: Penguin and Random House, two of the biggest book publishers in the industry, have confirmed that they’re planning to merge in response to “the challenges arising from the growth of e-books and the rise of Internet retailers like Amazon.” If approved by courts, the deal would give the combined companies a whopping… Read More

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

Today at Flavorpill, we met the world’s greatest daredevils. We got the scoop on the new BuzzFeed Food. We discovered 10 teen books that adults also enjoy. We found out that Adele is a big hit at funerals. We entered the adorable Dexter Morgan’s… Read More

The 15 Albums You Need to Hear in September

You know summer is well and truly over when the humidity recedes, the days start getting shorter and the big album releases start coming thick and fast. Yep, it’s almost time for the September rush, and this year the crop is particularly good — so much so, in fact, that we’ve expanded our usual round-up of 10 albums you need to hear in the month to come to a bumper list of 15. As ever, we’ve also rounded up the rest of the month’s notable releases: the good, the bad, and the ugly. So tell us: what are you looking forward to hearing in… Read More

The Weirdest Interactive Installations and Performances

Interactive installation art and audience-immersive exhibits and entertainment have been around for quite a while, but as our culture and its propensity for extremes continues to evolve, these artworks and performances have followed suit. Viewers really want to be part of the show, and the constant shift in power between artist and spectator-turned-participant is an exciting and unpredictable draw for people.

We spotted a current installation at the National Art Museum of Ukraine on Gawker recently, and felt inspired to round up a few other interactive and immersive works that required a steep commitment from audiences. They range from the radical to the absolutely bizarre. We feature them all after the jump — from a real-life sleeping beauty, to an artist that asked people to shoot him. Feel free to drop your favorite interactive performance/installation craziness in the comments section. … Read More

10 Trendsetting Elderly Style Icons

Both outrageously funny, pioneering, and strikingly stylish, Phyllis Diller and Helen Gurley Brown are two “glam-mas” that are very much missed. While the Cosmo editor-in-chief opted for shrewd sophistication over Diller’s exaggerated, gaudy glamour, the groundbreaking duo made bold style statements that exceeded mere fashion, up until their final days. They owned their look through and through, and we’ve selected a group of golden girls that match Diller and Brown’s trendsetting sensibility. Click through for a look at a few of our favorite age-defying style icons. … Read More