Ai WeiWei Creates Monet’s “Water Lillies” Out of Lego
When we think of Lego bricks, we typically envision a child building a house or a car. What we don’t think of is an artist creating a masterpiece using Lego bricks as an element in fine art.
When using an element like a Lego Brick, the hurdle an artist has to make is to create more than a gimmick. It must have the power to create an emotional reaction in the viewer.
Ai WeiWei’s latest Lego creation, Monet’s Water Lillies, is a tour de force. He used 650,000 bricks to recreate Monet’s impressionist masterpiece. The magic is not that he used a bunch of Lego bricks. It is that he was able to match Monet’s subtle color changes, shading, and brush strokes using a simple four-sided piece of plastic.
But Ai Weiwei brings history with him as he lives in Portugal, unable to return to his home country of China. You see, not only is Ai WeiWei an artist but an outspoken civil libertarian as well.
Those in London between April 7 and July 30 can see Ai Weiwei’s Lego work at the ” Ai Weiwei: Making Sense” show.