The current Constantin Brâncuși exhibition at the Pompidou Centre reminded me to return briefly to Len Lye’s 1925 marble sculpture Unit (also known early on as Two-in-One). Unit (above right) is explicitly a homage to Brâncuși’s The Kiss (above left) with its two lovers locked tight in an embrace but with a vorticist influence. In New Zealand, during the early 1920s, Lye had encountered Henri Gaudier-Brezeska’s work in books and magazines before turning his hand to sculpture in Syndey in 1925 under the tutelage of Rayner Hoff.

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