Let’s just get this out of the way up front: strolling through the new traveling exhibit that’s opened up at the President Clinton Library, called the Art of the Brick and displaying the sculptures of one Nathan Sawaya made entirely out of Lego blocks, you’re going to think to yourself “I could do this.”
You almost can’t help it. If somehow you’re not thinking it quietly to yourself, you’re likely to hear someone else saying it out loud. That’s because Legos are one of those universal things. If you haven’t played with them at some point — and it’s a good bet most people have — you at least know what they are and how they work. So it’s understandable that one of the informational posters that accompanies the exhibit pretty much says exactly what you’re thinking: go home, build and create.
But if you get too caught up in that line of thought, you’re like to miss the truly amazing artistic talent that’s on display in this exhibit, which features 39 works of Sawaya, six of which have specific ties to Arkansas and the museum itself. These works aren’t just any old something; the level of complexity and attention to detail is simply phenomenal. Many of the pieces involve a human form in some way, and they’re not just straight-edged figures of 90-degree angles. They’re formed and fluid, with detailed muscles and faces mirroring the human shape. Some pieces look like photographs or paintings. It’s not just a kid’s creation, but a real artist’s work. It just happens to be made out of toys.
Sometimes the work itself acknowledges that youthful connection. One of the more eye-catching pieces is a massive castle surrounded by a moat with a boat in it, all rising out of an even larger storybook. Titled Pop-up Book, the piece is accompanied by a poem which explains it. Fairy tale-like, the poem talks of a love-smitten prince who leaves the castle to sail with a maiden on the boat because she refused to jump out and join him. But what’s amazing about the piece is the detail: the mulch-tiered castle, the water made up of different shades of blue blocks to denote depth, the boat that not only has a sail but a clearly billowing sail caught by the wind. And it’s all in Legos.
Then again, so is everything else, and that includes another eye-catcher called Crayons. Unsurprisingly, it features 11 Lego block crayons, each measuring just over three feet long and arrayed like they would be in a fresh pack, red to yellow to yellow green to green and so on down to white. Once again not ignoring detail, a shorter “dulled” orange crayon lies on the ground, its paper cover being peeled away before it gets sharpened. By the way, this is all in Legos.
You kinda keep having to remind yourself, especially when you take in pieces like the Shocking Self-Portrait which is a fully detailed picture of the artist that, from a distance, loses its distinct lines and pixelated colors and becomes almost painting-like. The same can be said of three other pieces, one called Country Gold and the other two untitled, all of which feature almost photograph-like renditions of human faces, complete with lighting and shadow. And, yes, it’s all in Legos.
So, too, are the pieces custom-made for this exhibit. Those include a model of the Clinton Museum itself — all nine feet of it — as well as the Clinton School of Public Service (the Choctaw Building), the newly opened Clinton Bridge and the Clinton Museum Store, complete with its name spelled out in bricks worked into the sculpture rather than painted on. Once again, all in Legos.
Yet probably the most fascinating of the Sawaya’s pieces are those that one might call the most artistic. These include things like his Yellow, a human torso made entirely out of yellow bricks, pulling itself open to have more yellow bricks spilling out. Likewise his Think! really makes one do just that — a gray human head filled with blocks of assorted colors has little figures, each a solid color of bricks, hopping out. One holds a key. Thinking about the piece, it’s hard not to see it as a representation of how ideas are formed and take on a life of their own. It’s a legitimate artistic statement. It almost doesn’t matter that it’s all Legos (yet it totally is).
But hey, anyone can put Legos together, right? Well, perhaps yes, but few can put them together like Sawaya has.
SEE THE EXHIBIT
“Art of the Brick” opened Oct. 1 at the Clinton Presidential Center and continues through Feb. 12 in the Garden View Room on the first floor. It houses the Lego art of Nathan Sawaya. The exhibit is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission ranges from free to $7 for adults. Visit clintonlibrary.gov or call (501) 748-0419.