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Ikon Birmingham 24 November to 13 February
The vivacious rhythms of Don Baretto's Cuban rumba 'La Belle Creole' entice us in to this absorbing exhibition, the most comprehensive retrospective of Len Lye's work ever staged in the UK. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1901, Lye was a prodigious artist and pioneering experimental filmmaker, yet his work continues to be widely overlooked. Even now, some 30 years after his death, Lye's ground-breaking techniques are often misattributed to others including Stan Brakhage and Harry Smith. Julian Trevelyan once described him as 'a man from Mars who saw everything from a different viewpoint' and while his restless, off-kilter temperament never allowed him to settle into any one style or movement, it was his obsession with representing motion that propelled his diverse and extensive oeuvre.
Moving to London in 1926, Lye soon immersed himself in the city's avant-garde community, joining the Seven and Five Society and associating with artists including Ben Nicholson and Paul Nash. Here he began experimenting with film, creating works such as ? Colour Box, 1935, which, along with its aforementioned soundtrack, opens the exhibition. This 'novelty' abstract film was originally commissioned by the GPO Film Unit as an attempt to spice up its otherwise temperate programme. Made without a camera, Lye painted a variety of marks directly onto the film strip, generating a heady barrage of jittering patterns and colours. Lye's unconventional technique of 'direct filmmaking' allowed...