Len Lye
Len Lye
24 August - 24 November 2002
Len Lye is one of New Zealand's most celebrated artists, both for his international reputation and for his innovative practice in a variety of media including sculpture, film, photogram and painting. This exhibition, organised in 2001 to mark the centenary of Lye's birth, provides a rare opportunity to see his enormously popular kinetic sculptures outside of their home at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. The themes which these sculptures bring to life—Lye's fascination with movement and light, and his empathy with the rhythms of the body and dance—are also fundamental to his work in other media. Recognised as a pioneer of experimental film-making, Lye began making films in the 1920s not by using a camera, but by scratching directly on to the film stock. His ingenuity with colour printing techniques, stop-frame animation, and synchronisation of visuals to music, result in a frenetic energy of colour, line and movement.
City Gallery Wellington added to the original exhibition developed by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of New South Wales to ensure that Len Lye included a full range of Lye's work seldom seen outside New Plymouth.
Principal Sponsor Telecom New Zealand.
Len Lye is a joint exhibition between the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, supported by the Len Lye Foundation. Len Lye Foundation is supported by the Technix Group.
Exhibition generously supported by Radio Active.