Make A Masterpiece With This ‘Starry Night’ Kit
One of the most visited paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MoMA) in New York City is Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” The Dutch post-impressionist artist painted it in June, 1889 from the view from his asylum window at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. With its brilliant colors and brush strokes, it is truly a masterpiece.
But now, you do not have to visit MoMA to behold its beauty. You can recreate this brilliant art yourself without ever picking up a paint brush. That’s because the LEGO Group has created a kit to build your own “Starry Night” out of LEGO bricks, according to a press release from the Danish company.
All the elements of the painting are in the kit from the twinkling stars and breathtaking moon to the French village below. The bricks even capture the swirling brush strokes and vivid colors.
Where did the idea come from?
This tribute to Van Gogh’s iconic painting came from Truman Cheng, 25, a fan from Hong Kong who submitted the idea on the LEGO ideas platform. The platform takes designs from fans, allows the public to vote on the ideas, and turns the winners into new LEGO products, reported CNN.
Cheng designed the kit in conjunction with MoMA. When he was developing his original concept, Cheng realized that if he stacked LEGO bricks in a random way, the results looked like Van Gogh’s unique brush strokes.
“It was a good brain tease to come up with tricks and techniques to capture the look of the original painting,” Cheng said in the press release. “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.”
About the LEGO kit
The 2,326-brick three-dimensional kit, which is designed for adult LEGO lovers, also contains a miniature Van Gogh figure with a paint brush, palette, easel, and tiny painting, according to the press release. The figure can be attached to the completed model via an arm.
You can display your finished model standing or it can be hung on a wall with the hanging feature that also comes with the “Starry Night” kit.
This unique set will be available on May 25, 2022 to MoMA members and LEGO VIPS and to the general public on June 1. But there’s more.
To celebrate the new kit and to encourage fans to create their own designs, the LEGO Group launched a competition for LEGO enthusiasts to create their own builds that were inspired by the night sky. Participants can enter on the LEGO website or at selected LEGO stores. Entries will be accepted until June 30, 2022. Winning designs will be displayed in the lobby of the museum that summer.
