Ai Weiwei Reimagines Monet's Water Lilies with 1.3 Million Lego Bricks in Le Havre
At the MuMa in Le Havre, Ai Weiwei showcases his Lego adaptations of Claude Monet's Water Lilies, named Water Lilies #1 and Water Lilies #2, as part of the Normandie Impressionniste festival and to commemorate Monet's centenary. Created in 2022, both artworks span fifteen meters and consist of around 650,000 Lego bricks each, amounting to a total of 1.3 million bricks. These pieces frame the "Monet au Havre" exhibition, which also includes Monet's 1904 Water Lilies. Influenced by his father, poet Ai Qing, who encountered Impressionism in France and endured persecution, Ai Weiwei incorporates a "black hole" in each piece, referred to as a "spatiotemporal door" to memory. The exhibition is open from June 5 to September 27, 2026.
Key facts
- Ai Weiwei created Water Lilies #1 and Water Lilies #2 in 2022 using Lego bricks.
- Each work is 15 meters long and uses about 650,000 Lego bricks.
- The works are displayed at MuMa in Le Havre for the Normandie Impressionniste festival.
- The exhibition marks the centenary of Claude Monet's death.
- The Lego pieces are shown alongside Monet's 1904 Water Lilies from the museum's collection.
- Ai Weiwei's father, poet Ai Qing, was persecuted during the Maoist regime and forced to burn his books.
- The 'black hole' in each composition symbolizes a spatiotemporal door to the memory of Ai Weiwei's father.
- Ai Weiwei previously used Lego to create portraits of political prisoners to evade Chinese censorship.
Entities
Artists
- Ai Weiwei
- Claude Monet
- Ai Qing
- Philippe Platel
Institutions
- MuMa - Le Havre
- Normandie Impressionniste
- Beaux Arts Magazine
- Studio Ai Weiwei
- MuMa - Musée d'art moderne André Malraux
- MoMA
Locations
- Le Havre
- France
- Orangerie
- 2 Boulevard Clemenceau, 76600 Le Havre
- Normandy
- Paris
- Giverny
- New York
- United States