Len Lye

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Len Lye, Roundhead, 1961 (authorised reconstruction)
Steel, nylon, gold plated copper with motor and altered music box, 675 x 255 mm dia.
Len Lye Foundation Collection, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Photo: Bryan James

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Len Lye, Roundhead, 1961, (authorised reconstruction)
Exhibited at Sydney Contemporary 2018
Installation detail, image courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation

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Len Lye, Roundhead, 1961 (authorised reconstruction)
Steel, nylon, gold-plated copper with motor and altered music box
Len Lye Collection/Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, image courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation

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Len Lye, Fountain II, 1959-60 (reconstructed)
Steel and mechanical engine, 274h x 200w cm
Installation view, 1301SW, Melbourne

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Len Lye, Fountain II, 1959-60 (reconstructed)
Steel and mechanical engine, 274h x 200w cm
Installation detail, 1301SW, Melbourne

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Len Lye, Fountain II, 1959-60 (reconstructed)
Steel and mechanical engine, 274h x 200w cm
Installation detail, 1301SW, Melbourne

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Len Lye, Fountain II, 1959-60 (reconstructed)
Steel and mechanical engine, 274h x 200w cm
Installation detail, 1301SW, Melbourne

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Len Lye, Fountain, 1959-60
Image courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation Collection, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery

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Len Lye, Rotating Harmonic, 1959
Steel rod, motor, copper and wooden base, 220x 47.2 x 47.2 cm
Len Lye Collection/Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, image courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation

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Len Lye, Rotating Harmonic, 1959
Steel rod, motor, copper and wooden base, 220x 47.2 x 47.2 cm
Len Lye Collection/Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, image courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation

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Len Lye, Fountain of Hope/Peace, 1959
16mm film shown as single channel digital video, black and white, sound, 01:00 min duration
Installation view, 1301SW, Melbourne

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Len Lye, Fountain of Hope/Peace, 1959
16mm film shown as single channel digital video, black and white, sound, 01:00 min duration
Installation view, 1301SW, Melbourne

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Len Lye, Fountain of Hope/Peace, 1959
16mm film shown as single channel digital video, black and white, sound, 01:00 min duration
Installation view, 1301SW, Melbourne

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Len Lye, A Colour Box (installation view), 1935
Digital version (orig. 35 mm, colour, sound)
Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation and the British Postal Museum and Archive. From Material preserved by the BFI National Archive and made available by Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

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Len Lye, A Colour Box (video still), 1935
Digital version (orig. 35 mm, colour, sound)
Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation and the British Postal Museum and Archive. From Material preserved by the BFI National Archive and made available by Nga Taonga Sound & Vision

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The Len Lye Centre
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand

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.

Artist CV ↓

Len Lye, Gordon Walters
1301SW Melbourne
11 Apr – 13 May 2023

Jonny Niesche, Michael Zavros, Len Lye, Fiona Pardington, Seung Yul Oh, Alicia Frankovich
Auckland Art Fair
24 – 28 Feb 2021

Billy Apple®, Martin Basher, Rebecca Baumann, Len Lye, Jonny Niesche, Fiona Pardington, John Reynolds, Gordon Walters
Pop Up
STARKWHITE Queenstown
29 Jan – 26 Feb 2021

Rebecca Baumann, Len Lye, Seung Yul Oh, Michael Zavros
Sydney Contemporary
16 – 13 Sep 2018

Len Lye
Love Springs Eternal
STARKWHITE Auckland
07 Feb — 07 Mar 2018

Rebecca Baumann, Brendan Van Hek, Alicia Frankovich, Len Lye, László Moholy-Nagy and Grant Stevens
In Motion
STARKWHITE Auckland
10 Jul — 08 Aug 2015