The LEGO Group has announced a partnership with the Belvedere Museum in Vienna to release a 4,000-piece Lego set of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss (1907–08).
The set, the largest painting-inspired one that the company has ever produced, will be available for purchase beginning August 1. It has a retail price of $299.99.
Unlike the original painting, the Lego version of The Kiss is technically three-dimensional, as building enthusiasts (ages 18+, per the box) are meant to stack various sections of the painting atop one another, giving the finished product more depth than Klimt’s original painting. While most LEGO sets traditionally feature paper instructions on how to build the final piece, this one will also have interactive 3D instructions that will be available via the LEGO Builder app.
According to a release, Stephanie Auer, the Beleveder’s curator of 19th- and 20th-century art, worked closely with Milan Madge, LEGO’s master model designer, to ensure that “the set faithfully recreates Klimt’s signature style using layered textures and intricate details” and that it “captures the emotion, ornamentation and luminous colour palette that defined the Austrian modernist painter’s work and the Vienna Secession movement.”
“Reimagined through LEGO bricks,” the release adds, “the artwork becomes an immersive creative experience that blends art, design and mindful building.” Auer and Madge will discuss their collaboration in a LEGO podcast episode, which releases on August 1.
“Working as a curator for the adaptation of Klimt’s The Kiss into a LEGO Art set was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Auer said in a statement. “Together with Milan Madge, we had extensive discussions about Gustav Klimt’s symbolism, ornamentation, and artistic techniques, as well as how these could be represented using LEGO bricks. Distinctive features such as the flatness and composition were carefully translated into LEGO bricks – always with the goal of staying true to the spirit of the original work.”
The forthcoming “ LEGO® Art Gustav Klimt – The Kiss ” has a depth of 1.5 inches.
Courtesy LEGO Group
The Lego version has also slightly adjusted the dimensions of The Kiss, which is a perfect square and measures 180×180 centimeters (about 71×71 inches, or nearly 6 feet). The scaled-down Lego version is 60×54 centimeters (23.5×21 inches) and has a depth of 4 centimeters (1.5 inches). Once finished Lego Klimt is also ready to hang on one’s wall and it features a built-in hanging mechanism in its back that allows for nails or hooks to easily slide in.
LEGO has previously released other sets that reimagine famous artworks, though none quite as close as capturing the artistry as the original as its version of The Kiss. Two of them were done in partnership with museums—interpretations of Claude Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies (1899), with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1889), with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam—while its takes on Leonardo da Vinic’s Mona Lisa (ca. 1503–06), Robert Indiana’s LOVE (1965), and Hokusai’s The Great Wave (1831) were done without an institutional backing.
“Recreating Klimt’s The Kiss in LEGO brick form was a unique creative challenge, requiring us to capture its rich textures, golden tones, and intricate detail while honouring the original masterpiece,” Madge said in a statement. “By combining golden LEGO elements with specially decorated pieces, we were able to recreate the artwork’s distinctive shades and textures in a building experience that celebrates its extraordinary beauty.”
