Why the Len Lye Centre is a really really good idea.
The new Len Lye Centre under construction in New Plymouth is the city’s
“I Can’t Get No-Satisfaction”.
The Rolling Stones were formed in 1962. Other great events in 1962 included Pope John’s excommunication of Fidel Castro, snow falling in San Francisco, and the birth of my beautiful partner Lynne.
In the early years, despite their rebellious attitude, the ‘stones’ were a covers band. Chuck Berry and Bo Didley got a particularly good thrashing by Mick and the boys and although it was fun to play the tunes of their idols and shag everything in a mini skirt, their manager could see the weakness in their future.
They had to start writing their owns songs.
Without material that was theirs and theirs alone, they risked being about as famous as an Austrian yodeller.So their manager said “Mick, Keith, get out of those birds and write a friggin song!” Reluctantly, they gave it a crack, but it was not until December 1964 that they released their first single with an original on both sides, and it wasn’t until February 1965 that they had their first UK number 1. Their first world number 1 hit (I Cant Get No) Satisfaction did not come until June 1965.
Fifty years on, yes 50 years!, this song is still their most famous and largely defines them.
Now what has this got to do with the building of the Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth?
My point about the Rolling Stones, or the Beatles, or Abba, is that their songs belong to them. Others sing them, record them, and fiddle with them. But the fact remains that the songs are theirs and theirs alone and they cant ever be taken away.
It is the same with Art.
Throughout the world, the credibility and mana of art galleries and museums lies in their collection of original works. If you have your own collection you have ‘cred’, and pulling power. You can lend your works to others, often for years at a time, but they are still yours. Art aficionados roll in to your gallery and ooh and aah.
I have done this myself. To see Picasso’s work in the Museu Picasso de Barcelona or see Grant Woods ‘American Gothic’ (the picture with the bloke holding a pitchfork standing next to his anxious looking wife – cant think why?) at the Art Institute of Chicago, is worth the trip – given so much more power and relevance by witnessing these works where they call home. And of course the mothership of Art is theLouvre – hence queues longer than a French argument.
Ironically, the works are not necessary in the cities of the artists. Picasso mostly painted in Paris, not Barcelona. The Getty in California has created one of the worlds best collections of everything by just buying it. The British Museum is the home of Egyptian history because the imperial Poms went to Egypt and took what looked interesting.
Which brings me to Len Lye.
By good fortune, New Plymouth is home to many of the original works of Len Lye – kinetic sculptor. Len was actually born in Christchurch and spent a good deal of his working life in New York. His link to theGovett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth being the result of fate and friendships. Furthermore, theLen Lye Foundation was established which amongst other things, flogs Len’s work harder than an insurance salesman and has turned many of his conceptual works into city sights.
Now say what you like about Len’s work, the point is that his work is now ours. It belongs here and it’s our party trick. Blessed with your own original song, any prudent producer will promote it to the max. Play it often, play it loud, turn it into a show, a movie, a musical. This is of course what the Len Lye Foundation has done with Len’s work. We have gone from tucking his stuff into a dark corner, to upsizing his wind wand, to books, movies and even an opera. Logically, the next step is to upsize the gallery so that we can really get some leverage and shout Lenny from the rooftops. This is good marketing, this is good business. This is how you make a hit song last 50 years.
Another point worth noting, is that we that often underestimate the attraction of the different. New Plymouth receives visitors because we have what others don’t – a particularly pointy and accessible mountain, a coastal walkway like no other, and an art gallery that has stuck to its contemporary guns.
Reassured by Len Lye’s works, the gallery has resisted the common denominator and as a result has a reputation that attracts arty types who would otherwise simply give us a miss.
If New Plymouth did not have Len Lye’s works, our gallery would be like every other provincial gallery in the country. Like a covers band with no song to call our own – unable to make it into the charts.
The problem with art is that it is seen as elitist. Ratepayers see the gallery as being for others and not for them. The Rolling Stones went to great lengths to appear youthful and rebellious. That’s who their audience was. The challenge for the Len Lye Centre is how to connect with its audience so that they throw roses and not tomatoes. Time will probably sort that out, but in the meantime, the marketers of the centre should keep reminding the crowd that it’s ours and ours alone.
Richard Alexander Bain
Self confessed art critic