The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opened Tuesday in Los Angeles – a $1 billion "temple to the people's art" courtesy of Star Wars creator George Lucas and his wife, business executive Mellody Hobson .
A slew of their famous friends– including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Steven Spielberg helped them celebrate at a gala last weekend. It was the big climax after weeks of previews and parties.
Star Wars robot R2D2 greeted visitors at one event. Some of them showed up in costume and were instructed to leave their lightsabers at the door. Inside the museum's rooftop restaurant, which has killer views of LA, revelers danced as a DJ spun house versions of Star Wars themes.
Jabba the Hutt and Baby Yoda
Architect Ma Yansong said he designed the museum to be cloudlike, but to many, it looks like a spaceship. In its gardens are a massive bronze sculpture of Princess Leia choking the evil Jabba the Hutt, and a fountain with statues of Yoda and Grogu, better known as "Baby Yoda."
One of the inaugural galleries showcases concept art, vehicles and droids from Star Wars films.
"This is nerd mecca. This is nerd heaven," said Amy Mainzer, a planetary science professor at UCLA who co-hosts a sci-fi podcast. She says watching Star Wars as a child inspired her to become an astronomer.
"I do feel like this museum looks a little bit like the museum of modern art on Tatooine," she quipped, pointing to Luke Skywalker's land speeder.
Narrative art is 'an emotional connection'
But only one small part of the museum is devoted to Star Wars. Lucas has been collecting art since his college days, when he paid $30 for an "Alley Oop" comic. It's now framed in one of the 35 galleries.
"If you have an emotional connection, then it's art," he told fans at San Diego Comic-Con.
His museum is spread out over five floors, including two state-of-the-art cinemas and a research library. It opens with an assemblage of artworks — mostly digital reproductions: a prehistoric cave painting, the Venus of Willendorf, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling and so on.
"We worked with a number of different institutions and world heritage sites to document and reproduce artworks…things that will never be possible to bring to Los Angeles," said senior curator Ryan Linkof. "So this really allows for people to have access to objects they may never be able to see. If you were to see all these pieces, you'd have to travel quite far."
But most of the collection is original work that Lucas says is often overlooked in the art world, including comics, Japanese manga, children's book illustrations, and pulp magazine covers.
One gallery features Lucas' large collection of Norman Rockwell paintings depicting mid-20th century American life. There's a self portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and newly commissioned street art from Banksy. The elusive artist even spraypainted the wall behind his stencil, and graffiti tagged a heart around the letters R2.
At the press preview, Lucas said his museum is dedicated to what he calls "narrative art."
"It's something that I felt very, very strongly about in terms of honoring illustrators," he said. "Artists who illustrate stories that are already written. And most of those stories are myths."
The new museum has its fans, but also its critics.
"He's trying to jam lots of different types of work into this one kind of self-invented, contrived category called narrative art," says culture journalist Carolina Miranda. "There is no articulation anywhere about what any of this means to its founder or the story that it might be trying to tell. I would have loved to have seen, say, a panel by one of the paintings talking about why Lucas found it interesting or influential."
But museum CEO Tracy Bates says the Lucas wants visitors to look at the art, rather than be distracted by wall texts. She says they can scan a QR code for more information if they really need it.
"The whole purpose and mission of this space is that nothing needs explaining to you," she says. "You look at the image and you see the story. You see the depth of the story, you see the purpose of the story. You might even find your own story."
The origin story
The museum has its own origin story. Lucas says it took 17 years to get it made.
"I'm used to doing the impossible," he said at the press preview. "This one almost broke my will."
Faced with legal and public challenges, Lucas had to abandon two other originally proposed sites, in San Francisco and Chicago. Then instead of a spot on Treasure Island, which is in San Francisco Bay, he chose to take over a large Los Angeles parking lot next to other museums and across from his film school alma mater, the University of Southern California.
There were COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain-related delays, and both the original chief curator and CEO left suddenly without explanation. In addition, earlier this year, 15% of the staff was laid off– mostly from the education and public programming department.
"This has been a long haul, between getting kicked out of cities and trying to get this built, which has been itself, eight years," he said. "Part of the problem is I'm a contrarian. I'm fascinated by things that people say can't be done."
The broadcast and digital versions of this story were edited by Jennifer Vanasco. Chloee Weiner mixed the audio. Danielle Scruggs edited the photos.
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