The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX has recently announced their acquisition of Ai Weiwei's Water Lilies #4 , (2022).
The final example from a series of mural-sized Lego®-brick reliefs that pay homage to Claude Monet’s Water Lilies (c. 1914-26), Ai's Water Lilies #4 is made from more than half a million Lego bricks, in 24 standard-issue colors, mounted on 10 aluminum panels that span almost 40 feet across. Added to Monet’s composition, however, is a dark portal, that represents the doorway to Ai’s childhood home, a haunted memory from the time when his father, the poet Ai Qing, and family were forced into rural exile, living in a cave without electricity or water during the purges of China’s Cultural Revolution.
The work will be on view starting September 6 in a new collection exhibition Material Presence, featuring artists who have boldy rejected genre boundaries and the use of traditional media.
Learn more at mfah.org
