Largest Len Lye exhibition ever opens in Melbourne

Media Release
13 July 2009

Largest Len Lye exhibition ever opens in Melbourne

Image: Len Lye Rainbow Dance 1936 (film still, detail) courtesy Len Lye Foundation, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and New Zealand Film Archive.

The largest and most comprehensive Len Lye exhibition to date opens at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Federation Square, Melbourne on 16 July 2009.

Celebrating the work of New Zealand’s most internationally renowned and pioneering modern artists, the exhibition Len Lye is a collaboration between ACMI and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, home to the Len Lye Collection and Archive.

This retrospective surveys the artist’s exuberant, pioneering work with colour, sound and movement, noting his creative engagement with indigenous Pacific cultures as well international artistic movements.

Featuring many materials never before exhibited, Len Lye includes the artist's sketches, paintings and batiks, through to his animation, direct filmmaking, photographic work and his extraordinary, unforgettable kinetic sculptures. Three of Lye's kinetic sculptures not seen in decades have been reconstructed specifically for the exhibition.

Co-curated by Alessio Cavallaro, Senior Curator, ACMI and the Govett-Brewster's Tyler Cann, Curator Len Lye, this exhibition presents a new and invigorating look at the work of Len Lye (1901-1980).

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Director Rhana Devenport says, “Len Lye is unquestionably one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most inspirational and influential artists, one who continues to be recognised worldwide for his adventurous practice at the intersection of creativity, technology and innovation. With his boundless imagination, Lye's work evokes wonder in audiences of all ages and inspires younger generations of artists. We are delighted to be working with ACMI to offer this experience to new Australian audiences”.

ACMI Director Tony Sweeney says, "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. It is an absolute honour to be working so closely with our peers in New Zealand at the Govett-Brewster on such an exciting and dynamic exhibition”.

Upon his death in New York in 1980, Len Lye gifted his entire collection and archive to the people of New Zealand to be housed and cared for by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, which he described as the "the swingiest art gallery of the Antipodes". Ambitious plans are now underway to realise a world centre for the permanent exhibition, research and continued exploration of Lye’s art and ideas in New Plymouth.

Lye’s work is held in major collections worldwide including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MoMA, New York; The British Film Institute, London; and the New Zealand Film Archive, Wellington. His work continues to be exhibited internationally, including most recently at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; The Drawing Center, New York; the 2008 Biennale of Sydney; the Australian Cinémathèque at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art and Tate Modern, London.

Len Lye at ACMI marks the first of a series of important Len Lye projects for 2009 including; Len Lye the book, a visually compelling and comprehensive survey of the artist's life, work and cultural significance, due for forthcoming release by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery; and Discoveries and Rarities, a film programme devoted to rare and recently discovered and restored Len Lye films featuring in the New Zealand International Film Festival 09.

Len Lye the exhibition is presented by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in collaboration with the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and with the support of The Len Lye Foundation and the New Zealand Film Archive. It runs 16 July until 11 October 2009.

ENDS

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