LEGO® IDEAS STARRY NIGHT SET – PRESS RELEASE

REIMAGINE VINCENT VAN GOGH’S ICONIC PAINTING WITH THE NEW LEGO IDEAS STARRY NIGHT SET

May 17, 2022: As a tribute to Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting, The LEGO Group has unveiled the Starry Night LEGO® Ideas set. This beautiful set was designed by Truman Cheng, a 25-year-old LEGO fan based in Hong Kong, via a submission on the LEGO Ideas platform, and was created in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The three-dimensional set reimagines Vincent van Gogh’s famous 1889 painting in LEGO form, with a heavy emphasis on the artist’s striking brushstrokes and choice of colors. Inspired by the view from his window at the asylum of the monastery of Saint-Paul de Mausole in Saint-Rémy, France, where the artist spent twelve months, The Starry Night is one of the best-known Post-Impressionist works in the world. world and has been a visitor favorite at MoMA since its arrival in 1935.

Art lovers can swap paint palettes for LEGO bricks and recreate one of the world’s most recognizable masterpieces. From twinkling stars and mesmerizing moon to the sleepy Provençal village below, van Gogh’s image came to life dramatically in brickwork, capturing the artist’s swirling brushstrokes.

To celebrate and inspire creativity, The LEGO Group has also launched a competition encouraging fans to submit their own mini LEGO builds inspired by the night sky. The winning drawings will be part of an installation on display in the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art this summer. Participants in Spain, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Mexico and Poland can enter by simply visiting https://www.LEGO.com/Starry-Night or select LEGO stores.

Honoring the famous artist, the set also includes a Van Gogh figurine, complete with brush, palette, easel and mini painting on a printed tile, which can even be attached via an arm to show him the scene in action. to paint. The intricate set can be displayed upright or on the wall, thanks to the hanging feature.

While developing the original concept, PhD student and LEGO fan Truman Cheng was playing with LEGO bricks when he realized that stacking them at random intervals resembled van Gogh’s signature brushstrokes. “It was a good puzzle to find tricks and techniques to capture the look of the original painting,” Cheng said of his design. “The brushstroke goes in many directions in the moon and the swirling cloud, so there was a creative use of the support and clip elements involved.

Once Truman’s design received 10,000 votes from the LEGO fan community, it was considered for development by the LEGO Group. Speaking of the decision to turn the design into a real setting, Federico Begher, Global Marketing Manager, said: “What makes The Starry Night so irresistible is the expressive brushwork and vibrant colors used throughout, which tell the story of mankind’s eternal dream. for better things. Truman’s design was a masterpiece in itself – showing how many different LEGO elements and techniques could be used to replicate van Gogh’s iconic painting.

At The LEGO Group, we want to inspire the world to be creative, so we’re extremely proud to have brought this set to life in partnership with such an iconic institution as MoMA, empowering fans to be artistic with bricks, and create and show off their own masterpiece.

“At MoMA, we celebrate the opportunity to connect art and the public, and we are thrilled to be part of a new way to experience van Gogh’s work and inspire the creative impulse in people of all ages,” said Sarah Suzuki, Associate Director, The Museum of Modern Art.

The set will go on sale May 25 exclusively for LEGO VIP members (www.lego.com/VIP) and MoMA members (https://membership.moma.org/) and will then be available worldwide from 1 June for £149.99 / €169.99 / $169.99 on www.lego.com/starry-nightat LEGO stores and with the MoMA Design Store in New York and online at store.moma.org.