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Len Lye

Director, Innovator

Globetrotting New Zealander Len Lye was a gifted innovator in many areas of the arts — film, painting, sculpture, photography, and writing. Inventing ways to make films without a camera, he became one of the pioneers of the genre later known as the music video. 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 was one of the rare examples of an experimental artist able to appeal not only to artist and critics but also to a broad public. Today his films are still screened regularly on MTV Europe and at rock concerts. His kinetic sculptures have attracted record crowds in a way that is rare for abstract art, and while viewers may not feel they understand his work they are fascinated and stirred by it. Roger Horrocks in his 2001 book Len Lye - A Biography, page 1