Len Lye was a pioneer of kinetic sculpture and experimental filmmaking and is one of Aotearoa’s most celebrated artists. The Len Lye Centre, the only single artist gallery in New Zealand, forms a wing of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth. Lye’s works are held in the collections of several major art museums including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Whitney Museum in New York, the Albright–Knox Gallery in Buffalo, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Major repositories of Lye’s films include Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, the British Film Institute, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Happy Moments by Len Lye
$30.00
AN ARTIST REMEMBERS HIS EARLY YEARS
Len Lye, the artist and film-maker, wrote this colourful account of his early years in New Zealand. It covers his most intense experiences during the first two- dozen years of his life, including his childhood years at the Cape Campbell lighthouse, his passion for drawing, his exploration of sex, and his discovery of modern art. Lye documented his experiences in crisp, rhythmic sentences, full of sensations and feelings, described by the poet Alistair Reid as “beautifully transparent and heart-stopping.”
Happy Moments is the remarkable life story of a street-wise young man who grew up in severe poverty but had the energy and vision to become a highly creative artist. Lye’s text is accompanied by many of his unique drawings, or “doodles” as he called them, and also by personal photographs. Happy Moments is a lively, down-to-earth record of early experiences and a rich introduction to Lye’s original approach to art.
