Born in Christchurch in 1901, Len Lye was driven by a lifelong passion for motion and energy, and how to represent them in art. He moved to London, where he exhibited with Frances Hodgkins and Henry Moore, and then to New York, where he became renowned as a film-maker and kinetic sculptor. Today his work is held in the collections of major art museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and Centre Pompidou in Paris.
In 1977, Lye returned to New Zealand for the first local exhibition of his work. Shortly before his death three years later, the Len Lye Foundation was established, and he bequeathed it his work. New Plymouth's Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is home to this amazing collection. In July 2015 the city council is opening a stunning, architecturally designed centre devoted to Lye's art and ideas.