Len Lye was born Leonard Charles Huia Lye in Christchurch, 1901-1980. Lye is a foundational ancestor of Aotearoa New Zealand’s contemporary art scene. He began making sculptures in Wellington while studying a diverse range of forms and concepts, from Māori motifs to European vorticist sculptors, then tapa design while living in Samoa for a year. His prodigious interest in the avant garde led him to settle in London from the late 1920s, and New York from the 1950s, where he became internationally recognised as a driver of modernist innovation. His goal of making movement tangible informed his experiments with hand-painted abstract animation and kinetic sculpture. He pioneered direct filmmaking, animating without a camera by scratching or painting directly onto celluloid film. Lye’s films are preserved by film distributors and in art collections around the world.
Roundhead (1961) is one of Lye’s most delicate motorised kinetic sculptures, comprising four concentric circles that spin in space to a sparse ambient soundtrack. His sculptures retain this sense of delicate balance and nimbleness even at a monumental scale. The 48 metre tall Wind Wand, New Plymouth (1996), and 10.6 metre tall Water Whirler, Wellington (2006) are permanent public installations made to interact with the elements; bending with the wind or emitting jets of water.
In 2015 the Len Lye Centre opened in New Plymouth, unique in Aotearoa New Zealand as a centre dedicated to a single artist, and architecturally crafted to compliment Lye’s work and vision.
RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023-24
Kineticism: Len Lye and the Howard Wise Gallery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Storm, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Shelling Out: Len Lye’s Experiments in Animations, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2023
Len Lye, Gordon Walters, 1301SW, Melbourne, AU
Len Lye: The Edge Of The Sea, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Charting the zig-zags, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Wand Dance, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2022-23
Len Lye: Atomic Power, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2022
Len Lye: Sky Snakes, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2021-22
Len Lye: Convolutions, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Rainbow Dance, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2021
Len Lye: Wand Dance, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye Tangibles: 1963 – 1969, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2020
Len Lye: The Absolute Truth of the Happiness Acid, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2019
Len Lye: Motion Composer, Museum Tinguely, Basel, CH
Len Lye: No Trouble, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2018-19
Len Lye: Group Therapy, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Wand Dance, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2018
Len Lye: Heaven and Earth, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Pretty Good for the 21st Century, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Antipodean emanations: cameraless photographs from Australia and New Zealand, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, AU
Len Lye: Blade, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Love Springs Eternal, Starkwhite, Auckland, NZ
2017-18
Len Lye: Convolutions, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye’s Jazz: Projection Series 9, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2017
Len Lye: Stopped Short by Wonder, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū
Len Lye’s kinetic sculpture Roundhead, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Fountain III, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye’s kinetic sculpture Grass, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2016-17
Len Lye: Flip and Two Twisters (Trilogy), Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Experimental Moves, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2015-16
Len Lye: Flora and Fauna, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2015
Len Lye’s Jam Session, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Len Lye: Four Fountains, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2015
Trilogy (A Flip and Two Twisters), Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2014
Len Lye: Motion Sketch, The Drawing Centre, New York, US
2011-12
Artists Reading Len Lye: Old Genes, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2011
Len Lye: All Souls Carnival, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2010-11
Len Lye: The Body Electric, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
2010
Len Lye: Trilogy, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2009-10
Len Lye: The Cosmic Archive, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2008-09
Len Lye: Chronosome, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
RECENT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
On Point, Herzliya Museum Of Contemporary Art, Herzliya, IL
2022
Le 3 Ecologie, Macte, Museo Di Arte Contemporanea Di Termoli, Termoli, IT
2021
Movement making Movement, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, SK
Queenstown Pop Up, Starkwhite, Queenstown, NZ
2020-21
Antibodies, Palais De Tokyo, Paris, FR
2019-20
Ruth Buchanan: The Scene In Which I Find Myself. Or, Where Does My Body Belong, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, NZ
2019
Elizabeth Thomson & Len Lye: Waking Up Slowly, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2018-19
Oskar Fischinger and Len Lye: Projection Series #12, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2018
Tūrangawaewae: Art and New Zealand, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, NZ
Sensory Agents, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2018
Free Radicals: Cinema on the Wrong Side of the Tracks, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2017
Show Me the Money!, Museet For Samtidskunst, Roskilde, DK
On an Island, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2016-17
The Shadow of Colour, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, IL
2016
Set in Motion, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Emanations: The Art of the Cameraless Photograph, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Projection Series #3: Syncopated Cinema, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
2015
America Is Hard To See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
In Motion, Starkwhite, Auckland, NZ
Imaginary Audience Scale, Artspace Aotearoa, Auckland, NZ
A Journal of the Plague Year, Kadist, San Francisco, US
2013-14
Typemotion – Type as Image in Movement, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, DE
2012
Animism, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, DE
Printin’, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
2011-12
Animism – Modernity Through the Looking Glass, Generali Foundation, Vienna, AT
2011
Ozlem Altin, Ruth Laskey & Len Lye: Figures in Space, Galerie Ute Parduhn, Düsseldorf, DE
Car Fetich. I drive, therefore I am, Museum Tinguely, Basel, CH
Watch Me Move: The Animation Show, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK
2010-11
Points of Contact: Jim Allen, Len Lye and Helio Oiticica, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymounth, NZ
Abstract Expressionist New York, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
2010
Celluloid: Cameraless Film, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Frankfurt, DE
Animism, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, CH
Le Mouvement: From Cinema to Kinetics, Museum Tinguely, Basel, CH
Animism, Kunsthal Extra City, Antwerp, BE
2009
Cause & Effect, LM Projects, Los Angeles, US
Art in Motion, Hive Gallery, Barnsley, UK
2008-09
Invisible Rays: The Surrealism Lagacy, The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts, US
2001-02
Animations, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
1984
Film (Fall 1984), Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
1961
Tangible Motion: Sculpture by Len Lye, Museum of Modern Art, New York, US
FILMOGRAPHY
Tal Farlow, 1min 30sec (completed posthumously, 1980)
Particles in Space, 4 min (1966)
Fountain of Hope, 1 min (1959)
Free Radicals, 5 min (1958, revised 1979)
Prime Time, 1 min (1958)
All Soul’s Carnival, 16 min (1957)
Rhythm, 1 min (1957)
Life’s Musical Minute, 1 min (1953)
Full Fathom Five, 1 min (1953)
Colour Cry, 3 min (1952)
Cameramen at War, 17 min (1943)
Planned Crops, 90 sec (1942)
Collapsible Metal Tubes, 90 sec (1942)
Kill or Be Killed, 18 min (1942)
Work Party, 7 min (1942)
Newspaper Train, 5 min (1942)
When the Pie Was Opened, 8 min (1941)
Musical Poster #1, 3 min (1940) in Technicolor
Swinging the Lambeth Walk, 4 min (1939) in Dufaycolor
Colour Flight, 4 min (1937) in Gasparcolor
N or NW, 7 min (1938)
Trade Tattoo (1937), 5 min in Technicolor
Rainbow Dance, 5 min (1936) in Gasparcolor
The Birth of The Robot, 7 min (1936) in Gasparcolor
Kaleidoscope, 4 min (1935) in Dufaycolor
A Colour Box, 4 min (1935) in Dufaycolor
The Peanut Vendor, 2 min (1933)
Tusalava, 10 min (1929)
COLLECTIONS
Len Lye Centre, New Plymouth, NZ
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, Wellington, NZ
The Museum of Modern Art
BFI National Archive, Berkhamsted, UK
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, NZ
Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, US
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York, US
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
Alan Gibbs Farm Sculpture Park, Kaipara Harbour, NZ
Berkeley Art Museum, California, US
Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, IL
Light Cone (film distributor), Paris, FR
LUX (film distributor), London, UK
Canyon Cinema (film distributor), San Francisco, California, US