Pixelated with Lego: Ai Weiwei's new take on Monet's water lilies

Claude Monet's monumental triptych Water Lilies 1914-26, part of a series depicting lily ponds, will take on new meaning in a re-creation by the artist and activist Ai Weiwei in his forthcoming London exhibition.

The brushstrokes used by the French impressionist to paint water and reflected landscapes are replaced by about 650,000 studs of Lego bricks in a 15-metre-long (50ft) work at the centre of Ai's biggest UK show in eight years, opening next month.

Titled Water Lilies #1, it is the largest Lego artwork by the celebrated global artist since he first adopted the medium in 2014 to produce portraits of political prisoners. It will span the entire length of a wall in the gallery at the Design Museum in Kensington, west London, where the exhibition opens on 7 April.

In the original masterpiece Monet depicts one of the lily ponds in the gardens of his home in Giverny, near Paris. Though his works are seen as a celebration of the natural world, the pond and gardens were man-made, designed and created by Monet himself at the turn of the 20th century. The artist even had the nearby Epte River partially diverted. 

In recreating the famous scene, Ai aims to challenge ideas of reality global artist since he first adopted the medium in 2014 to produce portraits of political prisoners . It will span the entire length of a wall in the gallery at the Design Museum in Kensington, west London, where the exhibition opens on 7 April.