All over the tube there are big posters advertising Art of the Brick. They all have a photo of this yellow torso opening his chest and letting his insides all spill out. And finally the ads got to me, and this weekend Ryan and I went to check it out. Even though the yellow guy is a cool sculpture, we were a little skeptical about how cool the exhibit would be. Ryan and I love Legos, and we even have a few tiny Lego sculptures in our apartment, but we’d been burned before. A few years ago we went to an exhibit of Lego Architecture at the National Building Museum and we were really disappointed. The whole thing was literally and figuratively beige. We were hoping for something more exciting this time around.
The exhibit was created by artist Nathan Sawaya and includes over 100 pieces of art. Our expectation was that the exhibit would mostly be sculptures of everyday things just made out of Lego. And there was some of that, but it wasn’t like the sculptures you see at toy stores like Hamley’s. We walked in and were immediately blown away.
When we saw these reproductions of famous art, Ryan and I both said “whoa.” The Mona Lisa looks amazing! It’s incredible how detailed her face is and you can even see that cheeky look in her eyes and smile. Starry Night is also really cool too. What I love is that Sawaya used the sides of the Lego to make Mona Lisa, so it has a smooth finish. With Starry Night, he used the tops of the Legos and layered them (which might be hard to see), which evokes the feeling of van Gogh’s brush strokes and painting styles. I had no idea it was possible to be so accurate with Legos.
Throughout the exhibit, I was continually impressed by how he was able to create round shapes. I love the cello. It was life-size and so delicate and detailed. I like to picture what an entire orchestra would look like. And I really think he could do it. It would be so cool to see a whole orchestra – people and instruments – mid playing and all made of Legos. It sounds simple, but I was continually astounded by how Sawaya could make anything out of Legos. At work, I play with Legos and I have three items in my repertoire: chair, castle, and square person. I had never considered that so much was possible.
At this point in our tour through the exhibition, I was impressed with the sculptures. It was clear that a person needs creativity and a special eye to see how to create these things out of square Lego bricks. But is it art? I wasn’t sure. As we got further in and saw some sculptures whose subjects were all Sawaya’s own. And then I was convinced. This is definitely art. He captures the human form so well, and with such emotion and movement. Doesn’t it look like the blue guy might come alive and wail in pain at the loss of the gray guy? Doesn’t the hand look like its fingers might close or wiggle about? The pictures below show despair, but there were also sculptures that showed love, fear, and stress. He is able to capture so much feeling.
My favorite sculpture is the one pictured above in the bottom left. I like that the little blue guy is leaning forward, looking like he is working hard to get up the stairs and the multi-colored guy leans in slightly to welcome him. Overall, this room was my favorite – I was impressed by the subjects he created and that he put this all together with just Legos.
He was also good with faces too. Look at the detail! The curvature of the cheekbones, the fullness of the lips, and the long eyelashes – it was so cool. Each of the faces had a different expression too.
Towards the end there was an area called In Pieces. It was a collaboration between Sawaya and photographer Dean West. The photos are of American landscapes, like movie theaters or railroads, and within the photo is a Lego sculpture. It’s one of those things where at first you don’t notice, but then you look back and you see that the dog, the dress, or the train tracks are actually made of Legos. The room had both the photos and the original sculpture that was in the photograph. I took some photos, but they don’t translate that well – so you should check it out yourself.
At the very end was the largest sculpture – a T-Rex skeleton. It was really large, although not life-size. I wonder how much research had to be done to ensure the T-Rex looked accurate and correct. Once we exited, there was a little area where visitors could make some Lego sculptures – and also buy Legos to take home. It was really fun we were both totally impressed. The tube ads convinced me to go, and it was well worth the trip. Thank you advertising. Maybe now I’ll be inspired to try some new Lego creations at work.
