{"id":881321,"date":"2026-09-03T00:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/881321\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T00:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T00:36:13","slug":"george-lucas-presents-a-galaxy-of-art-that-goes-far-far-past-star-wars-in-new-los-angeles-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/881321\/","title":{"rendered":"George Lucas presents a galaxy of art that goes far, far past ‘Star Wars’ in new Los Angeles museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 The new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will serve \u201cStar Wars\u201d fans what they crave, but the saga George Lucas spawned represents just one small corner of the galaxy of creative work within the walls of the Los Angeles institution he calls a \u201ctemple to the people\u2019s art.\u201d<\/p>\n

The purpose of the palace that has become his life\u2019s work since he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 is to take the work of populist painters, commercial illustrators, comic artists and paperback cover-creators and treat it with a reverence normally reserved for Rembrandts. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really what the mission is, that there\u2019s these incredibly familiar pieces that have not had the opportunity to be platformed in this manner, to be placed like this, to be curated in this way, for people to really see the genius behind it,\u201d museum CEO Tracey Bates said in an interview with The Associated Press inside the museum.<\/p>\n

The building opens to the public Sept. 22. <\/p>\n

\"MellodyLucas Museum of Narrative Art George Lucas Mellody Hobson Mellody Hobson, left, and George Lucas, co-founders of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, appear during a press preview for the museum in Los Angeles on Sept. 2, 2026. (Chris Pizzello \/ AP Photo) <\/p>\n

The 82-year-old Lucas made an unannounced appearance at a media preview day at the museum on Wednesday with his wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson, the museum\u2019s co-founder. He said he couldn\u2019t believe the place now exists after being conceived 17 years ago and having been \u201ckicked out of\u201d proposed locations in cities including San Francisco and Chicago, places where previous sites fell through. <\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the problem is that I\u2019m a contrarian. I don\u2019t like to do things people think can be done,\u201d he said, wearing a T-shirt that read \u201cDedicated to the people\u2019s art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m used to doing the impossible,\u201d he said. \u201dThis one almost broke me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visitors to the new museum will be greeted by a bright yellow Naboo N-1 Starfighter from 1999\u2019s \u201cThe Phantom Menace\u201d that hangs in the lobby of the public research library. The opening exhibit, \u201cStar Wars in Motion,\u201d shows production versions of Luke Skywalker\u2019s landspeeder from the original film and speeder bikes from 1983\u2019s \u201cReturn of the Jedi.\u201d <\/p>\n

But Bates points out that \u201c\u2018Star Wars\u2019 only occupies 7% of the museum, actually.\u201d And chief among the tasks of the CEO and her staff in the final days before opening is spreading the word about all it has to offer. <\/p>\n

Nearly everything in the vast museum\u2019s 100,000 square feet of galleries comes from the personal collection of Lucas or Hobson, a major collector of African-American art. <\/p>\n

The filmmaker began collecting original comic art from newspaper strips like \u201cAlley Oop\u201d when he was in college and it could be had for pocket change. When blockbuster money started rolling in, he started buying paintings from commercial artists, including Norman Rockwell and Maxfield Parrish, that were deemed the height of uncool at the time. He joked at a San Diego Comic-Con panel last year that he needed a museum just to have somewhere to put it all. <\/p>\n

\"ALucas Museum of Narrative Art Preview A Lucas Museum of Narrative Art volume is displayed inside the Lucas Museum Library during a preview of the museum in Los Angeles on Aug. 31, 2026. (Chris Pizzello \/ AP Photo) Treating Rockwell like Renoir and Parrish like Picasso <\/p>\n

Bates, who joined the project in 2020, spoke to the AP while sitting in the gallery devoted to Rockwell, the 20th century painter and illustrator who embodies the spirit of the museum more than Luke Skywalker or C-3PO. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the greatest storytellers of our lifetime, really,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean the level of nuance and depth in a Rockwell, I get lost in them constantly.\u201d <\/p>\n

Best known for his weekly covers of \u201cThe Saturday Evening Post,\u201d with images of Boy Scouts and family Thanksgiving dinners, Rockwell\u2019s paintings were quintessential small-town Americana, which made them wildly popular but brought them scorn for their squareness.<\/p>\n

Senior curator Ryan Linkof told the AP that when he joined the museum in 2018, he knew only the consensus view of the painter. <\/p>\n

\u201cWorking here I really just grew to absolutely love the work and find him as an image-maker, him as an artist, him as the figure, the cultural icon, just to be incredibly sophisticated,\u201d Linkof said. <\/p>\n

\"LawrenceLucas Museum of Narrative Art Preview Lawrence Noble’s 2025 bronze sculpture of the Indiana Jones movie character is pictured during a preview of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles on Aug. 31, 2026. (Chris Pizzello \/ AP Photo) <\/p>\n

The Rockwell gallery gives special prominence to a painting that shows he had greater depth than many realize: his rendering of Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old Black girl who is surrounded by marshals as she walks into an all-white New Orleans school in 1960. It\u2019s titled \u201cThe Problem We All Live With.\u201d <\/p>\n

The gallery also has a sculpture of the artist, newly commissioned for the museum, that recreates a famous comic portrait of him painting himself. <\/p>\n

Lucas also stockpiled the work of Parrish, another painter and commercial illustrator whose imagery helped define the 20th century but who could be dismissed as cloudy fluff. His work is ethereal and angelic, marked by a signature shade of blue, and the paintings\u2019 luminosity gives them a glow that feels made for a museum, even though one of the most ornate paintings in the collection was made for a chocolate box. <\/p>\n

Linkof walked with the AP through the Parrish gallery, a favourite of many early visitors, calling it \u201ca little sanctuary, a little chapel in some ways, dedicated to the work.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was known for these really gorgeous light effects and creating these atmospheric landscapes,\u201d the curator said. \u201cWe wanted to respect that and create a space that really let the paintings create that sense of tranquility.\u201d <\/p>\n

Many galleries are organized not by artist, era or genre but by aspects of everyday life, merging eras and styles. One examines sports. Another civic activism. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re interested in the stories that they\u2019re telling, rather than these kind of somewhat artificial categories defined by discipline,\u201d Linkof said. \u201cThe gorgeous idea of these myths, myths of everyday life, the stories that we tell ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum has its share of higher-brow artists too, with work from Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Andy Warhol. If it tells a story, it has a place.<\/p>\n

\"ALucas Museum of Narrative Art Preview A Naboo N-1 Starfighter from the film “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” is suspended in the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art during a preview in Los Angeles on Aug. 31, 2026. (Chris Pizzello \/ AP Photo) The building gives vibes of a spacecraft, a tree canopy and a cloud<\/p>\n

Visitors will walk through the museum designed by architect Ma Yansong eight years after its groundbreaking in Exposition Park, next to Lucas\u2019 alma mater: the University of Southern California. <\/p>\n

Ma and his firm wesre chosen in 2014, and an architecture gallery in the museum shows his proposed models for San Francisco and Chicago along with the origins of the Los Angeles project. <\/p>\n

Given the name outside, it\u2019s hard not to think of a spacecraft when looking at the building. The architect acknowledges this, and says visitors will especially feel it when standing in front of broad oval windows that give views of Los Angeles from spaces spread throughout the galleries. <\/p>\n

But Ma\u2019s style is more organic than mechanical, and the museum gives the feeling that it hovers above the neighbouring Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and surrounding buildings like the California Science Center. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it\u2019s like a cloud or like a tree canopy that\u2019s floating above you,\u201d Ma told the AP. \u201cIt feels formless almost. But you want to discover. So you have to start a journey. You have to start to walk around.\u201d <\/p>\n

As he looked around inside the museum, he said he couldn\u2019t wait to see people flowing through it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe designed an architectural space with emotion,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to see people\u2019s reaction to those spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ALucas Museum Narrative Art Preview Mel Ramos paintings A visitor looks at Mel Ramos’ oil paintings “Man of Steel,” left, and “The Green Lantern” during a preview of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles on Aug. 31, 2026. (Chris Pizzello \/ AP Photo) Comics, sci-fi and kid stuff permeate the space<\/p>\n

The museum has as much sci-fi and fantasy from Lucas\u2019 collection as from his own work. The sword-and-sandal comic book and paperback art of artist Frank Frazetta has a dedicated space. Nearby are huge, heavy-metal-epic paintings of images from J.R.R. Tolkien by Paul Raymond Gregory, complete with skull-studded frames. <\/p>\n

A children\u2019s section includes a painting of Eloise of \u201cEloise at the Plaza\u201d fame by illustrator Hilary Knight, a painting of Pikachu modeled on a Van Gogh self-portrait from Pokemon illustrator Naoyo Kimura, and rooms full of anime and manga images. <\/p>\n

And the comic art that started Lucas\u2019 collecting has several halls dedicated to it, with some of the earliest drawings of \u201cStar Wars\u201d inspiration Flash Gordon on display, along with Flash Gordon\u2019s own inspiration, Buck Rogers, and proto-\u201cPeanuts\u201d panels from Charles Schulz, along with edgier alt-comic work from artists including Robert Crumb. <\/p>\n

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press<\/p>\n

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