LYON, France (AFP) - Yoko Ono will not attend the launch of a retrospective of her work in France next week as she is still recovering from a severe bout of flu, gallery managers said Saturday.

The 83-year-old's doctor had "strongly advised her against any travel before she has completely recovered", said Thierry Raspail, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon.

The Japanese singer and artist, widow of Beatle John Lennon, "is recovering from a severe case of influenza and (is) doing well", Raspail added in a statement, citing her doctor.

Ono was briefly hospitalised in New York last month on her doctor's advice, but returned to her New York apartment a day later. Her son Sean Lennon said she had flu, and dismissed initial reports that Ono had suffered a stroke.

The Lyon show, Ono's first retrospective in France, will open on Tuesday.

While she will not attend the launch, Ono "says she absolutely plans to travel to Lyon in May", at a date which will be agreed soon, the museum statement added.

Ono still lives in the Dakota building on the edge of Central Park where Mark David Chapman in 1980 shot dead Lennon, from whom the apparently delusional gunman had earlier asked for an autograph.

Ono last month released a remix album, Yes, I'm A Witch Too, that features versions of her songs reworked with other artists. Contributors include prominent alternative rockers Death Cab for Cutie and punk rocker turned dark electronic DJ Moby, as well as Sean Lennon.

She has apparently been in good health, last year playing two concerts with her Plastic Ono Band at New York's Museum of Modern Art and headlining the Chinese-oriented Modern Sky Festival in Central Park.

The Lyon show, entitled "Yoko Ono: Lumiere de l'Aube" ("Yoko Ono: Dawn Light"), will run from March 9 to July 10, will include works by the experimental artist between 1952 and 2016.