Gustav Klimt meets LEGO® Art

“To see the artwork in images is one thing, but to actually come here and see it in person was spectacular”,  

Milan Madge describes his first visit to the Belvedere Museum. This was when the initial collaboration meeting for the “The Kiss” - LEGO Art set took place – in a room right next door to the original painting. 

“Every question we had [while discussing the initial model], we just popped our head out the door and looked at the real thing”, 

Milan explains. With the museum being full of visitors and the project being top-secret, this proved to be advantageous, as well as quite a challenge. Only a very small circle of people – both at the LEGO Group as well as at the Belvedere – had been in the know about the project then. When the LEGO team informed their colleagues that they were working remotely that day, they weren't working from home. They were actually working at the Upper Belvedere, surrounded by marble and gold, with a view of Vienna. 

To reinterpret a masterpiece of art – and do it justice – is no small feat. The first draft of the product looked quite different from the result – “much more scaled down, much less of the ornamentation and detail”. The process involved not only getting a closer look at the painting but also getting to know the artist and his work. Stephanie Auer, curator of 19th and 20th century art at the Belvedere Museum, was Milan’s sparring partner in this project and shared her insights on the artist, his style and his time. She describes initially not even knowing the words to comment on a LEGO interpretation of the artwork. 

“It was a process, I think, until we started speaking the same language. [Milan] told me about the needs of LEGO bricks and I tried to explain Klimt’s universe [to him]. And suddenly it clicked”, 

Stephanie Auer describes the experience.