Viewing  A long overdue retrospective of conceptual art trailblazer Yoko Ono

John Lennon once quipped that his wife Yoko Ono was “the world’s most famous unknown artist”. Tate Modern’s long overdue retrospective of her work rights this wrong. Born in Tokyo nearly 91 years ago, Ono was a pioneer of early conceptual and participatory art, film and performance, as well as being a musician and a campaigner for world peace. She invited gallery goers to cut her clothes off for “Cut Piece” in 1964 a decade before Marina Abramovic asked visitors to use scissors, wire and a gun “on me as desired” in “Rhythm O”.

That work and other seminal pieces, such as the once banned “Film No.4 (Bottoms)” from 1966-7 – starring a parade of bare buttocks – are explored in the show, which charts the development of her practice over the decades. Her “Refugee Boat”, which visitors are encouraged to cover with messages, from 1960 couldn’t feel more current. Tate Modern’s retrospective reveals that Ono has always been an artist ahead of her time.