LEGO has re-imagined Vincent van Gogh’s masterpiece The Starry Night in brick form. Fans of the classic toy can now reproduce the iconic painting using LEGO bricks, complete with a miniature version that appears to show the artist at work.
The Danish toy maker joined hands with New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which houses the original painting, to create LEGO Ideas The Starry Night set for adults.
Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night in June 1889 while he was at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy, France. He was inspired by the night sky he could see from his window. MoMA acquired the painting from a private collector in 1941.
Here’s more about LEGO Ideas The Starry Night set
The toy version looks like a 3D object
LEGO’s model contains 2,316 bricks, each of which carefully follows the artist’s colour theme and brush strokes. Once properly arranged, LEGO Ideas The Starry Night set looks like a 3D rendering of real The Starry Night.
It successfully presents the twinkling stars, the moon and the village that can be seen in the original painting.
View this post on Instagram
An extension of the toy features a minifigure LEGO van Gogh along with a miniature version of the painting, brush, palette and an easel to make it appear as if the artist is at work making his masterpiece.
The toy measures 38 cm in length and 21 cm in width. It has a height of 28 cm. The set can be displayed standing or hung from a wall.
Hong Kong student designed the toy
The toy was designed by Truman Cheng, a 25-year-old PhD student from Hong Kong.
Cheng submitted his design on the LEGO Ideas platform, where fans of the toy can share design ideas for public voting. The winning ideas are reproduced by LEGO in toy form.
“It was a good brain tease to come up with tricks and techniques to capture the look of the original painting,” Cheng was quoted as saying in a statement issued by LEGO. “The brushwork goes into many directions in the moon and the swirling cloud, so there was some creative use of bracket and clip elements involved.”
Costing USD 169.99, LEGO Ideas The Starry Night set will be available for sale on 25 May for LEGO VIP and MoMA members. Global sales will begin on 1 June at LEGO’s official website, LEGO stores, MoMA Design Store in New York City, and online MoMA store.
(Main and Featured images: LEGO)
Tags
Written by
Manas Sen Gupta writes at the intersection of tech, entertainment and history. His works have appeared in publications such as The Statesman, Myanmar Matters, Hindustan Times and News18/ETV. In his spare time, Manas loves studying interactive charts and topographic maps. When not doing either, he prefers reading detective fiction. Spring is his favourite season and he can happily eat a bowl of noodles any time of the day.
