A Colour Box

United Kingdom, 1935

Film
A Colour Box thumbnail image.

The purely abstract “A Colour Box” was Len Lye’s first experiment with painting in colour directly onto celluloid. After its initial release in 1935, John Grierson acquired the film for the United Kingdom General Post Office, and it was re-released in 1937 as an advertisement, with the addition of a “cheaper parcel post” message. Note: this film has been restored by the National Film and Television Archive (UK) from Lye’s original material using the Eastmancolor process.

How are these works connected?

Explore this constellation

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

This work has been digitised and can be viewed in the display above.

Collection

In ACMI's collection

Previously on display

22 April 2019

ACMI Viewing Booths

Credits

creator

Len Lye

producer

John Grierson

Duration

00:03:28:00

Production places
United Kingdom
Production dates
1935

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

B2001360

Audience classifications

Mediatheque - all ages (ACMI classified)

unclassified

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

MOV file H264; ACMI Digital Access Copy - presentation

Digital Betacam [PAL]; Sub-master

Wikidata

Q64768574

Collected

40 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/113986--a-colour-box/ |title=A Colour Box |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=28 March 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}