What's New  

Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night Now Available In Lego

By Chinelo Eze

18 May 2022   |   1:57 pm

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on Telegram

When the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York purchased "The Starry Night" from a local seller in 1941, it was a virtually unknown picture. Vincent van Gogh's masterwork has inspired everything from a hit ballad for singer Don McLean in 1971 to mass-produced scarves, umbrellas, and water bottles in the 81 years since…

Lego Starry Night cdn.cnn_.com

When the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York purchased “The Starry Night” from a local seller in 1941, it was a virtually unknown picture.

Vincent van Gogh’s masterwork has inspired everything from a hit ballad for singer Don McLean in 1971 to mass-produced scarves, umbrellas, and water bottles in the 81 years since it was created.

LEGO finally released it depiction of the famed painting “The Starry Night,” joining in the fun, allowing fans to recreate the Dutch painter’s brushstrokes in brick form.

Truman Cheng, a 25-year-old from Hong Kong, designed the 2,316-brick set, which will retail for $169.99, through a submission on the LEGO Ideas platform, which accepts fan-created designs and puts them to a public vote and brings them to life.

A working typewriter, the house from the movie “Home Alone,” and a scene from “Seinfeld” are among the other outstanding concepts to emerge from the platform.

The scene from the window in the Monastery of Saint-Paul de Mausole psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy, France, where Vincent van Gogh spent a year between 1889 and 1890, the year of his death, inspired the painting “The Starry Night.”
Cheng, who is a PhD student, said his inspiration came from playing with LEGO and seeing how the bricks resembled Van Gogh’s signature brush strokes when arranged at random intervals.

According to Cheng’s statement released on the official LEGO website, he describes the creative process fun and a brain tease to come up with methods and ways to mimic the look of the original artwork.

“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.”

Sarah Suzuki, the associate director of MoMA said in the statement: “At MoMA, we celebrate the opportunity to connect art and audiences, and are thrilled to be part of a new way to experience van Gogh’s work, and to inspire the creative impulse in people of all ages.”

In reaction to the work of Cheng’sLEGO set, Federico Begher, thed president of global marketing at the toy manufacturer said, “Truman’s design was a masterpiece in itself, illustrating how many various LEGO pieces and techniques could be employed to duplicate van Gogh’s classic painting.”

LEGO has announced a competition for enthusiasts to create their own mini-builds inspired by the night sky to coincide with the release. The winning ideas will be featured in an installation in the lobby of MoMA this summer.
From May 25, the kit will be accessible to MoMA members and LEGO VIPs before going on general sale a week later.