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LEGO Brings Van Gogh’s Most Famous Painting Into the Third Dimension With 1,500 Fan-Designed Bricks
By presenting the painting in 3D, it both emulates the style of Van Gogh's brushstrokes, and the world that he was painting at the time.
Culture & Entertainment
Always keeping an eye on its more mature fans, LEGO is preparing to release a set of Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh’s great work, Starry Night.
But rather than forming a flat mosaic of bricks to make that most famous of images, Truman Cheng, a 25-year-old PhD student from Hong Kong, built the whole scene as Van Gogh would have viewed it—with the moon, the town, and the clouds made three-dimensional.
The result is Starry Night in 3D, complete with a little LEGO Minifigure of Van Gogh with a paintbrush, easel, and pallet, to be produced in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art—where the original painting has been housed since 1935.
Cheng submitted the idea through LEGO Ideas, which allows fans to submit their own concepts for a set, and which has included intricately made additions to Star Wars and Harry Potter sets.
Cheng relied on making the painting 3D to emulate Van Gogh’s brushstrokes, and to lend to the moon and clouds that famous swirling effervescence they possess.
The little LEGO painter can be attached to the frame to make it look like he’s painting \ from where he might have been standing.
Alternatively, because a frame of LEGO bricks is part of the—it can be hung on the wall like a normal painting.
LEGO almost went bankrupt in the 2000s after some poor product launches, but was saved by the steady devotion of the first adults who grew up with LEGO.
Afterwards, the Danish company forever kept their over-21 crowd in their thoughts, providing different sets that were more complicated, that could be combined with electronic components, or that were particularly beautiful.
For the current phase of nostalgia that American culture has wrapped itself around, LEGO has produced sets like the diner from Seinfeld, and other sets from popular ’90s television shows.
The 1,552-piece Starry Night will be available from LEGO at $169.00.