The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened to the public on 22 September in Exposition Park, south of downtown Los Angeles. The museum was founded by film-maker George Lucas and businesswoman Mellody Hobson, in a project that took almost two decades, went through several proposed sites and received at least $1 billion from Lucas himself.
The building, designed by architect Ma Yansong, covers some 28,000 square metres and has 33 galleries organised around themes such as motherhood, work, family and love. More than 1300 works are on display, from Norman Rockwell illustrations and comics to Banksy graffiti and a rare work by Frida Kahlo.
Although it includes concept paintings from ‘Star Wars’, these make up only about 7% of the works on show. ‘It’s not a Star Wars museum, it’s a museum of narrative art. It’s about storytelling,’ explained Lucas, who says he wanted to pay tribute to illustrators.
The first piece in the collection was a comic strip that Lucas bought at university for about $35. The director Steven Spielberg, a friend of Lucas for almost 60 years, sits on the museum’s board.
