Your breath smells like apples, you speak with an accent, you...

Your breath smells like apples, you speak with an accent, you have mud on your shoes… you must be a well travelled man!

Nō roto mai i tētehi terenga whakaahua o ngā ringatoi, ngā kaitōrangapū me ngā hautupua hākinakina i puta i te tau 2013, te tānga o Len Lye, nā Wayne Youle i tā. Ko Ralph Hotere rātou ko Rita Angus, ko Jen-Michel Basquiat me te toa whutupōro, a Pelé, hētehi o ngā tāngata kua tāngia, ā, e ai ki te ringatoi, he whakamānawa i ngā tauheke auaha me rātou hoki i whakaawe i tēnei tikanga, i tēnei hanga whakaaro, me te amo ake i hāna ake mahi kia rewa ki te taumata o ā rātou mahi.

Ko ngā taitapa māro, me ngā kano kaha, e whakaahuatia ana i roto i ngā tikanga whakairoiro e whakangungu ana i a Youle. Ko te ingoa o tēnei mahi, he mihi nā tētehi ringatoi ki tētehi atu. He whakapuakanga ki te noho kōkewa a Lye, ā, ko te āporo he whakapuakanga mō tōna noho taurima atu ki Te Āporo Nui. Ko te oneparu i runga i hōna hū he whakapuakanga ki te whenua o Aotearoa, te wāhi i wehe ai te ringatoi.

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Wayne Youle’s painting of Len Lye belongs to an ongoing series of portraits of artists, political figures and sportspeople produced since 2013. Including figures such as Ralph Hotere, Rita Angus, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Brazilian footballer Pelé, the artist considers the portraits a means of honouring his creative forebears, acknowledging those who have influenced his practice and thinking, and positioning his own work in relation to theirs.

Youle’s training as a designer informs the hard-edged, bold-coloured forms that make up this portrait. This work’s title reads as an address from one artist to another. It makes references to Lye’s nomadic lifestyle, with ‘apples’ referencing Lye’s adopted home in New York. The ’mud’ on his shoes a reference to the ground of Aotearoa, from which the artist departed.

— Text developed for Te Hau Whakatonu: A Series of Never-ending Beginnings (5 August 2023–11 February 2024), curated by Taarati Taiaroa