The Artist And The Artist

During Lennon’s life he made many friends from beatnik poets to drug dealers, music stars to actors. Lennon was one of the most famous people in the world, he was in every paper, on ever tv and radio. Some of the people he met used him and his fame for their own financial gain, but out of all the people to come into his life a surrealist artist is probably one that at first thoughts doesn’t seem to surprising, but the person in question might surprise some people. 

(John, Yoko and Dali, in Paris, photo from google image search)

Salvador Dali was a Spanish surrealist born in Catalonia, Spain. Dalí was best known for the striking and bizarre ‘psychedelic’ artwork and films. 

In March 1969 while on their honeymoon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono had lunch with the artist Salvador Dali in Paris. Dali had been a fan of Lennon for some time before they met, as early 1967 there are reports he had a John Lennon coat hanger (that had Lennon’s face printed on it) hanging on his wall! There is surprisingly little written about their meeting and the contact they had with each other, it is a part of Lennon’s life that is not often written about and when it is, it’s just in passing. One of the most famous song writers in history meets one of the most famous surrealist painters in history, and it’s just swept under the carpet. John is rumored to own a number of pieces by Dali, one of them was photographed with him in his Montague Square flat in 1968. The item sits on the table in front long hairs Lennon, the item is a crystal in a bowl shape with a glass eye painted by Salvador Dali set in the centre. Later in life Dali was contacted by Yoko Ono, asking for some trimmings of his world famous mustache. 

(Photo from google image search) 

Yoko had a love of the occult and because of this being known by people it made Dali fear  that the Yoko might use it for occult purposes, the painter decided instead to send a blade of dried grass instead. He believed that Yoko was a witch and might use it in a spell if he gave her a personal item or one of his hairs, however it is not know if that was always his opinion of her from their first meeting in Paris or not. In the 70’s Dali made a visit to Lennon in his New York City apartment, on one meeting with John he requested Yoko not to be there when he arrived.