PHOTOS Portraits and art masterpieces made completely out of Rubik’s Cubes!

Mao Tse-tung portrait made of Rubik's Cubes

If you thought solving a Rubik’s Cube was hard, try recreating a fine art masterpiece with thousands of the 3-D puzzles! That’s what the folks at the Canadian-based Cube Works have done time and time again, making Rubik’s Cube-ist versions of classics by Leonardo Da Vinci, Andy Warhol, Edvard Munch, Vincent Van Gogh and other artists as well as custom and original portraits of Bono, Sir Elton John and Jack Nicholson.

Here’s the Cube Works’ version of Da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” which used 4,050 cubes, weighs 500kg and measures 17 feet wide by 8 1/2 feet tall!

Da Vinci's Last Supper made of Rubik's Cubes

Check out more examples of the Cube Works’ creations, including images from an art show featuring their work. Click the thumbnails to see larger images in the gallery:


Photos: Barcroft/Fame Pictures

How the group describes themselves and their work:

Cube works is a collection of cube-ist and graphic designers coming together to create complex works using the ’80s toy craze. While solving the sides was the ultimate goal of the toy, Cube Works uses the cube as a unique, technically complex medium for making art. Just as how pixels on a computer screen are colored and organized to form images, Cube Works arranges the cubes to make lifelike pictures out of the colored blocks.

The end results are intricate works of iconic images complete with subtleties in shading and depth. The scope of designs range from the Warhol-inspired pop art Marilyn and Campbell Soup to the complex and intricate recreation of the masterpieces of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

Guinness Book of World Records has recognized the Last Supper as the largest work (4050 cubes measuring 8.5 feet x 17 feet) of its kind in the world creating a new category for it. Cube Works also creates custom pieces from images provided by clients. Pricing is based on size and complexity of the work.

You can see more “cube-ism” pieces over at cubeworks.ca, including Jim Morrison, Jack Nicholson, Bob Marley and Jackie O.

Got a hankering to tinker with a Rubik’s Cube? Here’s a virtual version of the classic ’80s puzzle toy. (You can select the “classic” colors on the bottom right.)

Subscribe to Starcasm by Email