Hidden Gems - our specially curated selection of original art

This week's art news

For his new show at London's Design Museum in April, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has recreated Claude Monet's famous waterlily paintings using Lego bricks - 650,000 of them in 22 different colours. The piece, entitled 'Water Lilies #1' is the latest of Weiwei's works made in Lego, and, says the Design Museum, the largest. 

A new photographic book of the late photographer Terry O'Neill's pictures of The Beatles has been released to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their album 'Please Please Me'. In the book, 'The Beatles by Terry O'Neill', he wrote: "‘I was the youngest photographer on Fleet Street. One day, my editor said to me: “There’s a new young band recording at Abbey Road, and we want you to go over and take some pictures.I knew a lot of the bands and the club scene in London, but this one was down in London from Liverpool recording at Abbey Road. Well, that band turned out to be The Beatles."

On 29 March, The Wallace Collection launches an exhibition called 'Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney'. It will have over 50 works of art focusing on our love of our canine pals; Castle Fine Art carries our own tribute to our loyal companions, too!

And in more museum news, the V&A in London has just announced a Chanel retrospective. Following their hit fashion exhibitions on Christian Dior and Alexander McQueen, 'Gabrielle Chanel: Fashion Manifesto' will open on 16 September. Fashion fans who can't wait for the show will love Pascale Taurua's glamorous take on haute couture.

'Featured art (L-R): 'Parisienne en Chanel et Gucci' by Pascale Taurua, £2,950; 'The Silent Inferno' by Lawrence Coulson, £18,250 and 'Sunset over the Grand Canal in the style of Claude Monet, 1908' by John Myatt, £40,000.