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Wikipedia

Len Lye

January 07, 2023

Leonard Charles Huia Lye (/laɪ/; 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Pacific Film Archive at University of California, Berkeley. Lye's sculptures are found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Berkeley Art Museum. Although he became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1950, much of his work went to New Zealand after his death, where it is housed at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth.

Len Lye
Lye in New York, 1966
Born
Leonard Charles Huia Lye

(1901-07-05)5 July 1901
Christchurch, New Zealand
Died15 May 1980(1980-05-15) (aged 78)
Warwick, New York, U.S.
NationalityNew Zealander
American
Known forFilm, sculpture

Career

As a student, Lye became convinced that motion could be part of the language of art, leading him to early (and now lost) experiments with kinetic sculpture, as well as a desire to make film. Lye was also one of the first Pākehā artists to appreciate the art of Māori, Australian Aboriginal, Pacific Island and African cultures, and this had great influence on his work. In the early 1920s Lye travelled widely in the South Pacific. He spent extended periods in Australia and Samoa, where he was expelled by the New Zealand colonial administration for living within an indigenous community.

Working his way as a coal trimmer aboard a steam ship, Lye moved to London in 1926. He quickly entered modernist circles, exhibiting with the Seven and Five Society from 1927 until 1934, and becoming affiliated with the Footprints Studio.[1] Most notably, Lye exhibited in the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition and began to make experimental films. Following his first animated film Tusalava, Lye began to make films in association with the British General Post Office, for the GPO Film Unit. He reinvented the technique of drawing directly on film, producing his animation for the 1935 film A Colour Box, an advertisement for "cheaper parcel post", without using a camera for anything except the title cards at the beginning of the film.[2] It was the first direct film screened to a general audience. It was made by painting vibrant abstract patterns on the film itself, synchronizing them to a popular dance tune by Don Baretto and His Cuban Orchestra. A panel of animation experts convened in 2005 by the Annecy Film Festival put this film among the top ten most significant works in the history of animation (his later film Free Radicals, not completed until 1979, was also in the top 50).

Lye also worked for the GPO Film Unit's successor, the Crown Film Unit producing wartime information films, such as Musical Poster Number One. On the basis of this work, Lye was later offered work for The March of Time newsreel in New York. Leaving his wife and children in England, Lye moved to New York in 1944.

In Free Radicals he used black film stock and scratched designs into the emulsion. The result was a dancing pattern of flashing lines and marks, as dramatic as lightning in the night sky. In 2008, this film was added to the United States National Film Registry.[3]

Lye continued to experiment with the possibilities of direct film-making to the end of his life. In various films he used a range of dyes, stencils, air-brushes, felt tip pens, stamps, combs and surgical instruments, to create images and textures on celluloid. In Color Cry, he employed the "photogram" method combined with various stencils and fabrics to create abstract patterns. It is a 16mm direct film featuring a searing soundtrack by the blues singer Sonny Terry.

As a writer, Len Lye produced a body of work exploring his theory of IHN (Individual Happiness Now). He also wrote a large number of letters and poems. He was a friend of Dylan Thomas, and of Laura Riding and Robert Graves (their Seizin Press published No Trouble, a book drawn from Lye's letters to them, his mother, and others, in 1930). The NZEPC (New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre) website contains a selection of Lye's writings, which are just as surprising and experimental as his work in other media. One of his theories was that artists attempt to reproduce themselves in their works, which he exposited in an essay complete with visual examples.

 
Water Whirler on the Wellington waterfront

Lye was also an important kinetic sculptor and what he referred to as "Tangibles". He saw film and kinetic sculpture as aspects of the same "art of motion", which he theorised in a highly original way in his essays (collected in the book Figures of Motion).

 
A 45m Wind Wand on the New Plymouth waterfront

Many of his kinetic works can be found at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, Taranaki including a 45-metre high Wind Wand near the sea. The Water Whirler, designed by Lye but never realised in his lifetime, was installed on Wellington's waterfront in 2006.[4] His "Tangibles" were shown at MOMA in New York in 1961 and are now found worldwide. In 1977, Len Lye returned to his homeland to oversee the first New Zealand exhibition of his work at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Shortly before his death in 1980, Lye and his supporters established the Len Lye Foundation, to which he gave his work.[5] The gallery is the repository for much of this collection, employing a full-time curator to ensure its preservation and appropriate exhibition.

Lye was a maverick, never fitting any of the usual art historical labels. Although he did not become a household name, his work was familiar to many film-makers and kinetic sculptors – he was something of an "artist's artist", and his innovations have had an international influence. He is also remembered for his colourful personality, amazing clothes, and highly unorthodox lecturing style (he taught at New York University for three years).

The 21st century has seen renewed international interest in Lye's career with retrospectives held at the Pompidou Centre, Paris in 2000,[6] an Australian touring exhibition organised in 2001 by the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney,[7] at ACMI, Melbourne in 2009,[8] and at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK in 2010.[9] Similarly, in New Zealand, surveys have been shown at the Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland in 2009, and City Gallery Wellington in 2013. The University of Auckland staged an opera about his life in 2012.[10][11]

Personal life

Lye was married twice. His first wife was Jane (Florence Winifred) Thompson with whom he had two children:

  • Bix Lye, also a sculptor, who lives and works in Williamsburg, New York
  • Yancy Ning Lou Lye (born 20 May 1940, Chiswick, London)

In Reno, Nevada, in May 1948, Lye married his second wife, Annette "Ann" Zeiss (born 1910, Minnesota) on the same day he obtained a divorce from Jane. Ann was formerly married to Tommy Hindle, a British journalist.

He died in Warwick, New York, in 1980.[12]

Legacy

The Len Lye Collection and Archive consists of all non-film works in Lye’s possession at the time of his death in 1980, as well as several items that have been given to or otherwise acquired by the Foundation since. This body of work is extended by Len Lye works in the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision (formerly the New Zealand Film Archive) is the repository of Lye’s film prints that are owned by the Len Lye Foundation, and viewing prints are also in the Collection at the Govett-Brewster. The Len Lye Centre a dedicated gallery for the Len Lye collection connected to the Govett-Brewster was opened on 25 July 2015. This is the first gallery in New Zealand to be dedicated to a single artist.[13]

There are two documentaries about Lye: Flip and Two Twisters, directed by Shirley Horrocks and Doodlin', and a DVD of Lye's talks illustrated with slides: Len Lye Talks about Art.

Filmography

  • Tusalava 10 min (1929)
  • The Peanut Vendor 2 min (1933)[14][15]
  • A Colour Box 4 min (1935) in Dufaycolor
  • Kaleidoscope 4 min (1935) in Dufaycolor
  • The Birth of The Robot 7 min (1936) in Gasparcolor
  • Rainbow Dance 5 min (1936) in Gasparcolor
  • Trade Tattoo (1937) 5 min in Technicolor
  • North or Northwest? (N or NW?) 7 min (1938)
  • Colour Flight 4 min (1937) in Gasparcolor
  • Swinging the Lambeth Walk 4 min (1939) in Dufaycolor
  • Musical Poster #1 3 min (1940) in Technicolor
  • When the Pie Was Opened 8 min (1941)
  • Newspaper Train 5 min (1942)
  • Work Party 7 min (1942)
  • Kill or Be Killed 18 min (1942)
  • Collapsible Metal Tubes 90 sec (1942)
  • Planned Crops 90 sec (1942)
  • Cameramen at War 17 min (1943)
  • Color Cry 3 min (1952)
  • Full Fathom Five 1 min (1953)
  • Life's Musical Minute 1 min (1953)
  • All Soul's Carnival 16 min (1957)
  • Rhythm 1 min (1957)
  • Free Radicals 5 min (1958, revised 1979)
  • Prime Time 1 min (1958)
  • Fountain of Hope 1 min (1959)
  • Particles in Space 4 min (1966)
  • Tal Farlow 1min 30sec (completed posthumously, 1980)

Bibliography

  • Len Lye, Zizz!: The Life and Art of Len Lye in his Own Words, ed. Roger Horrocks, Wellington, Awa Press. ISBN 978-1-927249-21-5

References

Notes

  1. ^ "Art New Zealand". www.art-newzealand.com. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  2. ^ Betancourt, Michael (1 May 2011). "On Len Lye's Kinetic Film Theory". Cinegraphic.net.
  3. ^ "Cinematic Classics, Legendary Stars, Comedic Legends and Novice Filmmakers Showcase the 2008 Film Registry" News from the Library of Congress (30 December 2008)
  4. ^ "The Len Lye Foundation - Water Whirler, 2006". www.lenlyefoundation.com. Retrieved 26 November 2020.
  5. ^ "Len Lye Foundation". Len Lye Foundation. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  6. ^ Johnstone, Andrew (4 May 2001). "Adding Len Lye to the Book of 20th-Century Art". New York Times. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  7. ^ "Len Lye (media release)". Art Gallery of NSW. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  8. ^ Clifford, Andrew. "The Man From the Future". New Zealand Listener. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  9. ^ Laura, Cumming (12 December 2010). "Len Lye: The Body Electric – review". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  10. ^ Dart, William (1 September 2012). "The Lye of the Land". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  11. ^ Daly-Peoples, John. "Len Lye: An inspiring new opera". National Business Review. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
  12. ^ Glueck, Grace (16 May 1980). "Len Lye, 78, Experimental Artist And Fine-Art Film Pioneer, Dies; Renewed Interest in Sculpture". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  13. ^ Coster, Deena (25 July 2015). "New Plymouth welcomes its Len Lye Centre with open arms". Taranaki Daily News.
  14. ^ "The Peanut Vendor".
  15. ^ "Experimental Animation, aka Peanut Vendor (1933)". BFI.

Further reading

  • Auckland City Art Gallery (1980) Len Lye: A personal mythology (catalogue published in conjunction with an exhibition of his paintings, steel-motion contributions and films). ISBN 0-86463-100-6
  • Bouhours, Jean Michel and Horrocks, Roger (ed) (2000) Len Lye, Paris, Edition Centre Pompidou. ISBN 2-84426-034-9
  • Curnow, Wystan and Horrocks, Roger (1984) Figures of Motion: Len Lye, Selected Writings', Oxford University Press/Auckland University Press, 1984. ISBN 0-19-647996-7
  • Horrocks, Roger (2002) Len Lye: A Biography, Auckland, Auckland University Press. ISBN 1-86940-247-2
  • Horrocks, Roger (ed) (2002) Happy Moments: Text and Images By Len Lye, Auckland, The Holloway Press. ISBN 0-9582313-3-8
  • Kashmere, Brett (2007) "Len Lye" in Senses of Cinema (Revised text of an entry first published in The Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film, 2006)
  • Len Lye in Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand online encyclopedia
  • Horrocks, Roger (2009) Art that Moves: The Work of Len Lye, Auckland, Auckland University Press. ISBN 978-1-86940-422-2
  • Horrocks, Roger (ed) (2009) Body English: Text and Images By Len Lye, Auckland, The Holloway Press. ISBN 0-9582313-9-7

External links

  • Len Lye at IMDb
  • Len Lye at the BFI's Screenonline
  • "Biography, Work listings and more". Govett-Brewster.
  • Leonard Charles Huia Lye biography from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
  • Work by Len Lye in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
  • Works, on New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre website
  • Len Lye's Water Whirler, Wellington, New Zealand
  • Len Lye's work in the collection of Te Papa
  • LEN LYE the opera

January 07, 2023
leonard, charles, huia, july, 1901, 1980, zealand, artist, known, primarily, experimental, films, kinetic, sculpture, films, held, archives, including, zealand, film, archive, british, film, institute, museum, modern, york, city, pacific, film, archive, univer. Leonard Charles Huia Lye l aɪ 5 July 1901 15 May 1980 was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture His films are held in archives including the New Zealand Film Archive British Film Institute Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Pacific Film Archive at University of California Berkeley Lye s sculptures are found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art the Art Institute of Chicago the Albright Knox Art Gallery and the Berkeley Art Museum Although he became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1950 much of his work went to New Zealand after his death where it is housed at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth Len LyeLye in New York 1966BornLeonard Charles Huia Lye 1901 07 05 5 July 1901Christchurch New ZealandDied15 May 1980 1980 05 15 aged 78 Warwick New York U S NationalityNew ZealanderAmericanKnown forFilm sculpture Contents 1 Career 2 Personal life 3 Legacy 4 Filmography 5 Bibliography 6 References 6 1 Notes 6 2 Further reading 7 External linksCareer EditAs a student Lye became convinced that motion could be part of the language of art leading him to early and now lost experiments with kinetic sculpture as well as a desire to make film Lye was also one of the first Pakeha artists to appreciate the art of Maori Australian Aboriginal Pacific Island and African cultures and this had great influence on his work In the early 1920s Lye travelled widely in the South Pacific He spent extended periods in Australia and Samoa where he was expelled by the New Zealand colonial administration for living within an indigenous community Working his way as a coal trimmer aboard a steam ship Lye moved to London in 1926 He quickly entered modernist circles exhibiting with the Seven and Five Society from 1927 until 1934 and becoming affiliated with the Footprints Studio 1 Most notably Lye exhibited in the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition and began to make experimental films Following his first animated film Tusalava Lye began to make films in association with the British General Post Office for the GPO Film Unit He reinvented the technique of drawing directly on film producing his animation for the 1935 film A Colour Box an advertisement for cheaper parcel post without using a camera for anything except the title cards at the beginning of the film 2 It was the first direct film screened to a general audience It was made by painting vibrant abstract patterns on the film itself synchronizing them to a popular dance tune by Don Baretto and His Cuban Orchestra A panel of animation experts convened in 2005 by the Annecy Film Festival put this film among the top ten most significant works in the history of animation his later film Free Radicals not completed until 1979 was also in the top 50 Lye also worked for the GPO Film Unit s successor the Crown Film Unit producing wartime information films such as Musical Poster Number One On the basis of this work Lye was later offered work for The March of Time newsreel in New York Leaving his wife and children in England Lye moved to New York in 1944 In Free Radicals he used black film stock and scratched designs into the emulsion The result was a dancing pattern of flashing lines and marks as dramatic as lightning in the night sky In 2008 this film was added to the United States National Film Registry 3 Lye continued to experiment with the possibilities of direct film making to the end of his life In various films he used a range of dyes stencils air brushes felt tip pens stamps combs and surgical instruments to create images and textures on celluloid In Color Cry he employed the photogram method combined with various stencils and fabrics to create abstract patterns It is a 16mm direct film featuring a searing soundtrack by the blues singer Sonny Terry As a writer Len Lye produced a body of work exploring his theory of IHN Individual Happiness Now He also wrote a large number of letters and poems He was a friend of Dylan Thomas and of Laura Riding and Robert Graves their Seizin Press published No Trouble a book drawn from Lye s letters to them his mother and others in 1930 The NZEPC New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre website contains a selection of Lye s writings which are just as surprising and experimental as his work in other media One of his theories was that artists attempt to reproduce themselves in their works which he exposited in an essay complete with visual examples Water Whirler on the Wellington waterfront Lye was also an important kinetic sculptor and what he referred to as Tangibles He saw film and kinetic sculpture as aspects of the same art of motion which he theorised in a highly original way in his essays collected in the book Figures of Motion A 45m Wind Wand on the New Plymouth waterfrontMany of his kinetic works can be found at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth Taranaki including a 45 metre high Wind Wand near the sea The Water Whirler designed by Lye but never realised in his lifetime was installed on Wellington s waterfront in 2006 4 His Tangibles were shown at MOMA in New York in 1961 and are now found worldwide In 1977 Len Lye returned to his homeland to oversee the first New Zealand exhibition of his work at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery Shortly before his death in 1980 Lye and his supporters established the Len Lye Foundation to which he gave his work 5 The gallery is the repository for much of this collection employing a full time curator to ensure its preservation and appropriate exhibition Lye was a maverick never fitting any of the usual art historical labels Although he did not become a household name his work was familiar to many film makers and kinetic sculptors he was something of an artist s artist and his innovations have had an international influence He is also remembered for his colourful personality amazing clothes and highly unorthodox lecturing style he taught at New York University for three years The 21st century has seen renewed international interest in Lye s career with retrospectives held at the Pompidou Centre Paris in 2000 6 an Australian touring exhibition organised in 2001 by the Art Gallery of NSW Sydney 7 at ACMI Melbourne in 2009 8 and at Ikon Gallery Birmingham UK in 2010 9 Similarly in New Zealand surveys have been shown at the Gus Fisher Gallery Auckland in 2009 and City Gallery Wellington in 2013 The University of Auckland staged an opera about his life in 2012 10 11 Personal life EditLye was married twice His first wife was Jane Florence Winifred Thompson with whom he had two children Bix Lye also a sculptor who lives and works in Williamsburg New York Yancy Ning Lou Lye born 20 May 1940 Chiswick London In Reno Nevada in May 1948 Lye married his second wife Annette Ann Zeiss born 1910 Minnesota on the same day he obtained a divorce from Jane Ann was formerly married to Tommy Hindle a British journalist He died in Warwick New York in 1980 12 Legacy EditThe Len Lye Collection and Archive consists of all non film works in Lye s possession at the time of his death in 1980 as well as several items that have been given to or otherwise acquired by the Foundation since This body of work is extended by Len Lye works in the Govett Brewster Art Gallery Nga Taonga Sound amp Vision formerly the New Zealand Film Archive is the repository of Lye s film prints that are owned by the Len Lye Foundation and viewing prints are also in the Collection at the Govett Brewster The Len Lye Centre a dedicated gallery for the Len Lye collection connected to the Govett Brewster was opened on 25 July 2015 This is the first gallery in New Zealand to be dedicated to a single artist 13 There are two documentaries about Lye Flip and Two Twisters directed by Shirley Horrocks and Doodlin and a DVD of Lye s talks illustrated with slides Len Lye Talks about Art Filmography EditTusalava 10 min 1929 The Peanut Vendor 2 min 1933 14 15 A Colour Box 4 min 1935 in Dufaycolor Kaleidoscope 4 min 1935 in Dufaycolor The Birth of The Robot 7 min 1936 in Gasparcolor Rainbow Dance 5 min 1936 in Gasparcolor Trade Tattoo 1937 5 min in Technicolor North or Northwest N or NW 7 min 1938 Colour Flight 4 min 1937 in Gasparcolor Swinging the Lambeth Walk 4 min 1939 in Dufaycolor Musical Poster 1 3 min 1940 in Technicolor When the Pie Was Opened 8 min 1941 Newspaper Train 5 min 1942 Work Party 7 min 1942 Kill or Be Killed 18 min 1942 Collapsible Metal Tubes 90 sec 1942 Planned Crops 90 sec 1942 Cameramen at War 17 min 1943 Color Cry 3 min 1952 Full Fathom Five 1 min 1953 Life s Musical Minute 1 min 1953 All Soul s Carnival 16 min 1957 Rhythm 1 min 1957 Free Radicals 5 min 1958 revised 1979 Prime Time 1 min 1958 Fountain of Hope 1 min 1959 Particles in Space 4 min 1966 Tal Farlow 1min 30sec completed posthumously 1980 Bibliography EditLen Lye Zizz The Life and Art of Len Lye in his Own Words ed Roger Horrocks Wellington Awa Press ISBN 978 1 927249 21 5References EditNotes Edit Art New Zealand www art newzealand com Retrieved 17 July 2019 Betancourt Michael 1 May 2011 On Len Lye s Kinetic Film Theory Cinegraphic net Cinematic Classics Legendary Stars Comedic Legends and Novice Filmmakers Showcase the 2008 Film Registry News from the Library of Congress 30 December 2008 The Len Lye Foundation Water Whirler 2006 www lenlyefoundation com Retrieved 26 November 2020 Len Lye Foundation Len Lye Foundation Retrieved 23 December 2017 Johnstone Andrew 4 May 2001 Adding Len Lye to the Book of 20th Century Art New York Times Retrieved 17 June 2013 Len Lye media release Art Gallery of NSW Retrieved 17 June 2013 Clifford Andrew The Man From the Future New Zealand Listener Retrieved 17 June 2013 Laura Cumming 12 December 2010 Len Lye The Body Electric review The Guardian London Retrieved 17 June 2013 Dart William 1 September 2012 The Lye of the Land New Zealand Herald Retrieved 17 June 2013 Daly Peoples John Len Lye An inspiring new opera National Business Review Retrieved 17 June 2013 Glueck Grace 16 May 1980 Len Lye 78 Experimental Artist And Fine Art Film Pioneer Dies Renewed Interest in Sculpture The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved 9 April 2020 Coster Deena 25 July 2015 New Plymouth welcomes its Len Lye Centre with open arms Taranaki Daily News The Peanut Vendor Experimental Animation aka Peanut Vendor 1933 BFI Further reading Edit Auckland City Art Gallery 1980 Len Lye A personal mythology catalogue published in conjunction with an exhibition of his paintings steel motion contributions and films ISBN 0 86463 100 6 Bouhours Jean Michel and Horrocks Roger ed 2000 Len Lye Paris Edition Centre Pompidou ISBN 2 84426 034 9 Curnow Wystan and Horrocks Roger 1984 Figures of Motion Len Lye Selected Writings Oxford University Press Auckland University Press 1984 ISBN 0 19 647996 7 Horrocks Roger 2002 Len Lye A Biography Auckland Auckland University Press ISBN 1 86940 247 2 Horrocks Roger ed 2002 Happy Moments Text and Images By Len Lye Auckland The Holloway Press ISBN 0 9582313 3 8 Kashmere Brett 2007 Len Lye in Senses of Cinema Revised text of an entry first published in The Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film 2006 Len Lye in Te Ara The Encyclopedia of New Zealand online encyclopedia Horrocks Roger 2009 Art that Moves The Work of Len Lye Auckland Auckland University Press ISBN 978 1 86940 422 2 Horrocks Roger ed 2009 Body English Text and Images By Len Lye Auckland The Holloway Press ISBN 0 9582313 9 7External links EditLen Lye at IMDb Len Lye at the BFI s Screenonline Biography Work listings and more Govett Brewster Leonard Charles Huia Lye biography from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Work by Len Lye in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Works on New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre website Listen to two Len Lye MP3s on thewire co uk Len Lye s Water Whirler Wellington New Zealand Information on Len Lye s Wind Wand Len Lye s work in the collection of Te Papa Len Lye The Body Electric Ikon Gallery Burmingham UK LEN LYE the opera Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Len Lye amp oldid 1120971544, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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