Yoko Ono's 'Music of the Mind' Brings Radical Participation to the Broad in Los Angeles
Few artists in modern history have challenged the boundary between creator and audience as boldly as Yoko Ono. Now, with her landmark retrospective Music of the Mind on view at the Broad in Los Angeles, a new generation of visitors has the rare opportunity to step directly into her visionary world — not merely to observe it, but to become a living part of it. The exhibition continues a tradition that has defined Ono's career for more than six decades: the radical belief that art is not a finished object to be admired behind glass, but an open invitation to think, feel, and act.
Who Is Yoko Ono? A Brief Portrait of a Revolutionary Artist
Though many casual observers still know Yoko Ono primarily through her association with John Lennon, art historians and critics have long recognized her as a singular force in avant-garde and conceptual art. Born in Tokyo in 1933, Ono was deeply involved in Fluxus — the international network of artists in the 1960s who rejected traditional aesthetics in favor of art rooted in everyday experience, humor, and audience engagement. Her 1964 book Grapefruit, a collection of instructional poems and event scores, is now considered one of the most important conceptual art documents of the twentieth century.
Long before "participatory art" became a fashionable curatorial term, Ono was pioneering it. Works like Cut Piece (1964), in which audience members were invited to cut away her clothing piece by piece, and Ceiling Painting/YES Painting (1966) — the work that famously caught Lennon's eye at the Indica Gallery in London — demonstrated her commitment to dissolving the wall between artist and viewer. Music of the Mind at the Broad is both a celebration of that legacy and a powerful reintroduction of it to contemporary Los Angeles audiences.
What to Expect Inside 'Music of the Mind'
The retrospective spans Ono's extraordinary career, bringing together works from across different periods and mediums, including instruction-based pieces, film, music, sculpture, and large-scale installations. True to the spirit of her practice, the exhibition is not a passive, walk-by-and-look experience. Many of the works on display require — or at minimum, invite — physical and emotional participation from the people who encounter them.
Visitors are encouraged to write their wishes and hang them from trees, add brushstrokes to collective canvases, and complete tasks described in her famous instruction pieces. These are not gimmicks or interactive add-ons designed to make the show feel contemporary. They are the art itself. For Ono, the act of participation is the creative act. The viewer who engages with an instruction piece becomes, in her framework, the artist completing the work.
The Broad, known for its commitment to showcasing ambitious contemporary and postwar art from its permanent collection and beyond, provides a fitting institutional home for the retrospective. Its open, column-free gallery spaces accommodate the scale and spirit of Ono's installations, allowing audiences to move through the exhibition with the freedom her work demands.
The Radical Philosophy Behind the Art
To understand Music of the Mind, it helps to understand the ideas that have animated Ono's practice from the very beginning. Central to her work is the conviction that imagination is itself a form of action. Her instruction pieces — deceptively simple directives like "Watch the sky until it becomes a painting" or "Imagine a canvas, stretch it, burn it" — are not meant to produce tangible objects. They are meant to produce mental and emotional experiences that shift how we see the world.
This philosophy has a deeply political dimension. Throughout her career, Ono has used her art to advocate for peace, feminism, and human rights. Her iconic War Is Over! (If You Want It) campaign, launched with Lennon in 1969, framed political change as a matter of collective will and imagination — ideas entirely consistent with the participatory logic of her visual art. Music of the Mind does not shy away from this dimension of her work, presenting her activism and her art as inseparable expressions of the same worldview.
Why This Retrospective Matters Right Now
In an era saturated with digital interactivity and algorithmically curated experiences, Yoko Ono's brand of participation feels refreshingly analog, intimate, and genuinely demanding. Her works do not reward passive scrolling. They require presence, attention, and a willingness to be vulnerable — to write something personal and hang it on a tree in a gallery full of strangers, or to add a mark to a collective artwork without knowing what it will become.
There is also something quietly urgent about encountering Ono's lifelong commitment to peace and imagination at this particular cultural moment. Her works remind us that art can function as a site of genuine human connection, and that the act of imagining a better world is not naïve but necessary.
Plan Your Visit to the Broad
The Broad is located at 221 S. Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, in the heart of the city's thriving arts district. The museum offers free general admission, though timed-entry reservations are recommended, especially for high-traffic exhibitions like this one. Visitors are encouraged to allow ample time to engage fully with the participatory elements of Music of the Mind — this is not an exhibition to rush through.
- Location: 221 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90012
- Admission: Free general admission; timed-entry reservations recommended
- Hours: Check the Broad's official website for current hours and reservation availability
- Accessibility: The Broad is fully ADA accessible
Whether you are a longtime admirer of Yoko Ono's work or encountering it for the first time, Music of the Mind at the Broad offers a rare and genuinely transformative experience. It is a reminder that the most radical act an artist can perform is to hand the work — and the power that comes with it — back to the audience. Ono has been doing exactly that for over sixty years. Los Angeles is lucky to be her canvas right now.