Len Lye World Premiere at ACMI, 16 July - 11 October, 2009
Click to enlarge
Len Lye on set of Fountain of Hope, 1959 - Image courtesy LLF
Click to enlarge
Len Lye on set of Fountain of Hope, 1959 - Image courtesy LLF
7 May 2009
Len Lye – An Artist in Perpetual Motion
WORLD PREMIERE EXHIBITION: Thursday 16 July to Sunday 11 October, ACMI Screen Gallery, FREE
“These [Lye’s] sculptures are more relevant today than ever” – Robert Nelson, The Age “Undoubtedly the greatest 20th
century artist from the Australia-New Zealand axis ever to storm the art capitals of the world was Len Lye” –Adrian
Martin, The Film Journal
In the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of his work to date, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI)
in collaboration with the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery will open the world premiere retrospective of internationally
acclaimed 20th century New Zealand artist Len Lye on Thursday 16 July, 2009.
Len Lye will feature art works and materials never exhibited before – ranging from early sketches, paintings and batiks,
through to his photographic work, animation and documentary films, and extraordinary motorised kinetic sculptures.
ACMI Director, Tony Sweeney, says Len Lye will provide Australian audiences with an unprecedented opportunity to
experience the depth of Len Lye’s work.
‘Len Lye is one of the 20th century’s most significant experimental artists to come out of Australasia, and it is an
absolute honor to be working so closely with our peers in New Zealand at the Govett-Brewster on such an exciting and
dynamic exhibition,’ Tony says. ‘An experimental film-maker, poet, painter, kinetic sculptor and theorist, Lye is
considered a seminal figure in the history of the moving image and one of the more radical creative minds of the
twentieth century’.
An artist in perpetual motion, Lye (1901-1980) was always responding to the emerging artistic movements of the times
that were pushing boundaries and developing new ways of thinking, seeing and creating but he was never bound by their
parameters. A self-directed artist who saw art as movement, sound and transformation, Lye was always integrating art
forms and working across different mediums.
After spending extended periods of time in Samoa and Sydney exploring indigenous art and modernism in the 20’s, Lye felt
isolated artistically so he moved to London where he began experimenting with filmmaking techniques. Works such as A
Colour Box (1935), a British Post Office advertisement, combined vibrant and basic animation techniques witb a
soundtrack of Cuban Jazz. With these and other remarkable works, Lye pioneered the technique of ‘direct filmmaking’,
involving painting, drawing, animating and stenciling directly onto celluloid. His work in film has and continues to
influence generations of experimental filmmakers including Norman McClaren and Stan Brakhage.
Although Lye did not see himself as a Surrealist, he exhibited his paintings in the 1936 International Surrealist
Exhibition in London because it appealed to him that the Surrealists were a ‘rebellious bunch’. He exhibited alongside
artists including Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Joan Miró and Man Ray. Lye’s close friend Dylan Thomas
contributed to the exhibition by offering boiled string in teacups and asking people whether they liked the tea ‘weak or
strong’.
In 1944 Lye moved to New York and contributed to an upsurge in experimental film-making in the USA. Living in Greenwich
Village during the Beat and avant-garde scene of the 50’s, Lye remained relatively undiscovered as he continued working
outside the mainstream 50’s and 60’s art movements. In 1958, Lye began experimenting with ‘tangible motion sculptures’.
He continued to explore the relationship between sound and movement through his astounding sculptures, many of which
will be featured in the ACMI exhibition.
Co-curated by ACMI senior Curator Alessio Cavallaro and Tyler Cann of the Govett Brewster, Len Lye capitalises on the
resurgence of Lye’s work internationally. Tyler Cann says, “As the ubiquity of the moving image in contemporary culture
drives a re-appraisal of its history, the critical recognition of Lye's films has increased. Less well-known is the
diverse range of media, styles and places in which the artist worked. Len Lye reveals the links and connections that
inform and unite his diverse practice, which includes experimental films, paintings and sketches, photographic works and
kinetic steel sculptures."
This unforgettably exuberant exhibition surveys his kaleidoscopic work with colour, his daring work with sound and
movement and his fascination with indigenous cultures and creativity. Len Lye presents a new and invigorating look at
one of Australasia's most significant and singular modern artists.
The World Premiere of Len Lye will be at ACMI on Thursday 16 July and run until Sunday 11 October 2009.
Curated by Alessio Cavallaro, Senior Curator at ACMI, and Tyler Cann, Curator of the Len Lye Collection and Archives.
Len Lye is presented by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), in collaboration with the Govett-Brewster Art
Gallery (New Plymouth, New Zealand), and with the support of The Len Lye Foundation and the New Zealand Film Archive.
ENDS