Legos, Ai Wei Wei, Flora Yukhnovich, Ordrupgaard ... and pastry

 

as much as I could fit into one photo

up close

Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei created an interpretation of Monet's water lilies using over 650,000 small Lego bricks, entitled Water Lilies #1.  The work is on display at Ordrupgaard for just one more day and I was so happy I got there in time to see it.  The artist's patterning of the bricks is an homage to Monet's painting but he also included elements of his life, so it's both gorgeous and expressive -- the inclusion of a black hole in the work recalls his incarceration by the Chinese government in 2011, where he was in solitary darkness for 81 days.

a section closer up

another section closer up

Lego sculptures (and Lego stores) are all over Copenhagen, but this work has amazingly powerful impact.  The museum has a video of the construction, with 10 people working on assembling it according to a very detailed pattern, as well as information about Ai Wei Wei and his life and work.  Just fabulous.

And if that wasn't enough!  It was also the last weekend of an exhibit of paintings by artist Flora Yukhnovich, "Into the Woods."  These paintings are gorgeous, lush, emotional and I found myself tearing up just looking at them and being struck by their power.  Her work combines abstract elements of landscape, figures hidden and revealed in parts and erotic imagery.   All in beautiful color.

I bought the exhibit catalog so I can spend more time with her work.  The exhibit was pretty crowded, so it was hard to see the large scale pieces as a whole.

I had a very elegant pumpkin soup and rhubarb soda in the cafe at Ordrupgaard and then went to see Finn Juhl's house, next to Ordrupgaard, which is preserved with its furniture and art in place from when he lived there.  Very beautiful and you see there the original pieces that have been reproduced for the furniture now sold under his name.

I did all this today using my Copenhagen Card and public transportation.  Mostly easy and I successfully displayed my valid QR code twice on the trains, where they do random spot checks to see if you've paid train or metro fare.

I mentioned yesterday that Copenhagen seems to wake up on the later side.  Ordrupgaard opened at 11 am today, so I had plenty of time this morning to find Juno the Bakery and try their cardamom bun and fastelavns bun (kind of a brioche with marzipan, slivered almonds and cream this morning, but it can have different flavor combinations.  It's a January treat, apparently).  I ate my breakfast in the cold dark at 8 am this morning.  Seattle has a lot of Nordic bakeries, and many cardamom buns, so I have had similar things at home, but I have to say these pastries were really delicious.