Early in life he was presented with a … 97, 127–28. Majoring in English, he completed a BA (1962), MA First Class Honours (1963), and PhD (1976) from the University of Auckland. Juli 1901 in Christchurch; † 15. "Len Lye: A Biography" by Roger Horrocks, published by Auckland University Press, is read here, with permission, in full, by long-time Len Lye fan, Alessandra Keighley. He was married to Annette Zeiss and Jane Florence Winifred Thompson. He was married to Annette Zeiss and Jane Florence Winifred Thompson. Leonard Charles Huia Lye dit Len Lye est un écrivain, sculpteur et réalisateur de films d'animation avant-gardistes et expérimentaux néo-zélandais, né le 5 juillet 1901 à Christchurch, en Nouvelle-Zélande, et mort le 15 mai 1980 à Warwick, New York, aux États-Unis . Len Lye: A Biography tells for the first time the story of an extraordinary New Zealander – a brilliant artist with an international career who never lost the informality, the energy and the independence of spirit of his South Pacific origins.. Lye (1901–80) was a charismatic artist of enormous talent who became a leading figure in international modernism. Len Lye was an innovative animator who developed the notion of painting directly on the film in his avant-garde short Color Box (1935). Working his way as a coal trimmer aboard a steam ship, Lye moved to London in 1926. One of his theories was that artists attempt to reproduce themselves in their works, which he exposited in an essay complete with visual examples. He was married to Annette Zeiss and Jane Florence Winifred Thompson. Feel free to collaborate sending us information about events in your area, publications, your creations, or writing on and expanding our wiki section. Lye was also an important kinetic sculptor. Further information There are two documentaries about Lye: ''Flip and Two Twisters'' and ''Doodlin''', and a DVD of Lye's talks illustrated with slides: ''Len Lye Talks about Art''. McLaren, too, experimented with a wide range of techniques for animating directly on film; he even created many of his scores by stenciling directly onto the sound track rather than recording in the traditional… Personal life Lye was married twice. Od 1943. je … Lye also worked for the GPO Film Unit's successor, the Crown Film Unit producing wartime information films, such as Musical Poster Number One. Mai 1980 in Warwick, New York; eigentlich Leonard Charles Huia Lye) war ein neuseeländischer Bildhauer, Künstler, Schriftsteller und Filmemacher . Na njegovo je djelo je značajno uticala fascinacija maorskom kulturom i umjetnošću ne-evropskih naroda. Painter and sculptor, heavily influenced by Polynesian art, after living for some time in the South Pacific. – Len Lye. Director, Animator. 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. 'Cinematic Classics, Legendary Stars, Comedic Legends and Novice Filmmakers Showcase the 2008 Film Registry' News from the Library of Congress (30 December 2008). 1948) ( divorced) ( 2 children). As a writer, Len Lye produced a body of work exploring his theory of IHN (Individual Happiness Now). Roger Horrocks is Len's biographer and his a filmmaker in his own right. Len Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye (5 July 1901, Christchurch, New Zealand - 15 May 1980, Warwick, New York), was a New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. 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. Publicity Listings He married his second wife, Annette 'Ann' Zeiss (born 1910, Minnesota), in Las Vegas in May 1948 on the same day he obtained a divorce from Jane. Len Lye - A biography. You are welcome to join us and then edit it. Commissioned to promote the General Post Office, it is Lye's first direct animation to receive a public release. LEN LYE: A Biography tells the life story of an artist who was able to transcend the typical neuroses that afflicted modernist artists (plus loss, poverty, war and exile) to produce a diverse body of paintings, films, sculptures and writing. Almost all of Len Lye's creative work was created overseas but his impact on the artworld can be understood by tracing his New Zealand roots. Born in Christchurch in 1901 and largely self-educated, Len Lye was driven by a lifelong passion for motion, energy … In the early 1920s, Ellitt became friends with the New Zealand-born artist Len Lye, then resident in Sydney. Leaving his family in England, Lye moved to New York in 1943. 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. Len Lye was born on July 5, 1901 in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is known for his work on Crusade in Europe (1949), N or NW (1938) and Stardust (1938). Following his first animated film Tusalava, Lye began to make films in association with the British General Post Office, for the GPO Film Unit. 1928 His father died three years later and Len was raised by his mother and various relatives. Lye was a maverick, never fitting any of the usual art historical labels. 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 was also in the top 50). Though his British oeuvre was by no means limited to the making of abstract films, this was the area that most interested Lye and he has sometimes been viewed as the only genuine avant-garde filmmaker of this period. Leonard Charles Huia Lye was born on 5 July 1901 in Christchurch. 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. is an independent website dedicated to provide information and promote experimental & avant-garde film. Len Lye, born Leonard Charles Huia Lye (5 July 1901, Christchurch, New Zealand - 15 May 1980, Warwick, New York), was a New Zealand-born artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. On the basis of this work, Lye was later offered work for The March of Time newsreel in New York. Leonard Charles Huia Lye is born in Christchurch, New Zealand on 5 July 1901; his childhood spent between Christchurch, Cape Campbell and Wellington before travelling to Sydney and Samoa as an adult, settling in London in 1926. Be bold! Len Lye: A Biography tells for the first time the story of a unique, charismatic artist who was an innovator in many areas―film, kinetic sculpture, painting, photography, and poetry. This body of work is extended by Len Lye works in the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Lye (1901–80) was a charismatic A Colour Box is a 1935 British experimental animated film by Len Lye. Available in Ebook. Len Lye is a controversial figure in New Zealand art, an internationally renowned and influential artist who is seen by some as an outsider whose art has little relevance to the local tradition. | This article is part of the Experimental Cinema Wiki. Other articles where Len Lye is discussed: motion-picture technology: Noncellular animation: …1930s with the films of Len Lye, a New Zealander also known for his abstract sculpture. 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. Other Works Len was a forward-thinking painter, sculptor and filmmaker who was concious of how future generations would interact with his work. 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 Chiswick, London). 12. Len Lye had this revelation, while still a young man. Len Lye was born on July 5, 1901 in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is a 16mm direct film featuring a searing soundtrack by the blues singer Sonny Terry. Horrocks was born in the Auckland suburb of Mount Albert on 4 June 1941, the son of Jack Horrocks and Edith Barbara Horrocks (née Rhodes). Lye was bormn in New Zealand in 1901. Len Lye, rođen kao Leonard Charles Huia Lye (5. jul 1901 - 15. maj 1980) bio je novozelandski likovni umjetnik, poznat po eksperimentalnim filmovima i kinetičkim skulpturama. Horrocks, Len Lye: A Biography, p. 133. Len Lye, “Is Film Art?”, Film Culture 29, Summer 1963, p. 39. In 2008, this film was added to the United States National Film Registry. It is home to the archives and studio collection of the Len Lye Foundation. He is known for his work on Crusade in Europe (1949), N or NW (1938) and Stardust (1938). He died on May 15, 1980 in Warwick, Rhode Island, USA. Ann was formerly married to Tommy Hindle, a British journalist. Len Lye was born on July 5, 1901 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Len Lye Leonard Charles Huia Lye ( 5 July 1901 – 15 May 1980) was a New Zealand artist known primarily for his experimental films and kinetic sculpture. This book is almost a complete story of Twentieth Century art in Europe, America, and the South Pacific. Settled in the U.S. in 1944. Len Lye was one of the few filmmakers working in inter-war Britain to have established an international reputation in experimental filmmaking. Recognised internationally as one the twentieth century’s great modernist innovators, New Zealand artist Len Lye is most famous for his avant-garde experimental films - he pioneered direct filmmaking (films made without a camera) by scratching or painting directly onto celluloid film - and for his astonishing and playful kinetic sculptures. He is also remembered for his colourful personality, amazing clothes, and highly unorthodox lecturing style (he taught at New York University for three years). Horrocks’ book is the most complete study of Lye’s life and work written to date. In Color Cry, he employed the 'photogram' method combined with various stencils and fabrics to create abstract patterns. Lye continued to experiment with the possibilities of direct film-making to the end of his life. 'Cinematic Classics, Legendary Stars, Comedic Legends and Novice Filmmakers Showcase the 2008 Film Registry', http://www.wellingtonwaterfront.co.nz/experience/art_and_design/, Process Cinema: Handmade Film in the Digital Age, Free Radicals: A history of experimental film, Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film. Born New Zealand 1901, died New York 1980. Lye was born in Christchurch in 1901. Production. Inventing ways to make films without a camera, he became one of the pioneers of the genre later known as the music video. LEN LYE: A Biography tells the life story of an artist who was able to transcend the typical neuroses that afflicted modernist artists (plus loss, poverty, war, and exile) to produce a diverse body of paintings, films, sculptures, and writing. The Water Whirler, designed by Lye but never realised in his lifetime, was installed on Wellington's waterfront in 2006. http://www.wellingtonwaterfront.co.nz/experience/art_and_design/. Rating: No votes yet. 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). LEN LYE: A Biography tells the life story of an artist who was able to transcend the typical neuroses that afflicted modernist artists to pproduce a diverse body of paintings, films, sculpture and writing. - Endnotes. He died on May 15, 1980 in Warwick, Rhode Island, USA. Later he moved to New York's Greenwich Village and became a leading figure in the kinetic art movements of the 1950s and 60s. He also wrote a large number of letters and poems. here in accordance with Lye’s own understanding of its meaning, which, as the foregoing comments make clear, carried no connotations of backwardness or underdevelopment and was instead aligned with a state of somatic advancement. His 1935 film A Colour Box, an advertisement for 'cheaper parcel post', was the first direct film screened to a general audience. The life of an extraordinary New Zealander told for the first time. View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, (? Len Lye (* 5. 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. On Lye’s film-going habits in London, see ibid., pp. The result was a dancing pattern of flashing lines and marks, as dramatic as lightning in the night sky. There he joined the Seven and Five Society, exhibited in the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition and began to make experimental films. * Len Lye's great nephew reflects on the artist's achievements * Len Lye: in his own words. Roger Horrocks, Len Lye: A Biography, Auckland University Press, Auckland, 2001, p.68. Horrocks says although Lye moved overseas in the 1920s he … With backing from the London Film Society, he made both animated and live action documentaries and short publicity films in the 1940's. Official Sites. Len Lye. 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). As a young man, he spent time in the South Seas and was greatly influenced by Polynesian art. In Free Radicals he used black film stock and scratched designs into the emulsion. It was designed by Andrew Patterson of Pattersons Associates, New Zealand. Many of Lye's kinetic works can be found at the Govett-Brewster Gallery in New Plymouth, Taranaki including a 45-metre high Wind Wand near the sea. Lye was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. His films are held in archives such as the New Zealand Film Archive, British Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Berkeley Art Museum|Pacific Film Archive at University of California, Berkeley. Although he did not 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 … Len Lye: A Biography tells the story of an extraordinary New Zealander – a brilliant artist with an international career who never lost the informality, the energy and the independence of spirit of his South Pacific origins. It was to endure as the central theme of his life and art for the next sixty years generating an extraordinary body of works including films, paintings, drawings, writings and sculpture. It was updated in July, 2013. This biography, written by Roger Horrocks, was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography in 2000. He is known for his work on Crusade in Europe(1949), N or NW(1938) and Stardust(1938). He cofounded the Auckland International Arts Festival, Alternative Cinema, Artspace, NZ On Air, and NZ On Screen, and served on many industry boards. 13. 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. | Len Lye - Globetrotting New Zealander Len Lye was a gifted innovator in many areas of the arts — film, painting, sculpture, photography, and writing. 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. 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 gifted or acquired by the Foundation since. In the early 1920s Lye travelled widely in the South Pacific. Ellitt’s career began with the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music where he studied piano and violin and played bassoon in the conservatorium’s orchestra. He spent extended periods in Australia and Samoa, where he was expelled by the New Zealand colonial administration for living within an indigenous community.