George Lucas has spent much of his life directing some of the biggest films in Hollywood history, but even longer than that, he’s been collecting art. Now, he has built a $1bn museum to put much of the collection that’s been 50 years in the making on display to the public.
Of the roughly 1,200 works in the newly opened Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, all but six are owned by Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, according to The Times. In other words, this is essentially a very large window into one very prolific collector’s taste – albeit one housed not in a showroom, hangar, or even your standard gallery, but a 300,000-sq-ft building in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park.
The museum opens its doors today, September 22, following 17 years of planning. Designed by MAD Architects’ Ma Yansong, its enormous (somewhat unsurprisingly) spaceship-like structure contains more than 100,000 sq ft of gallery space, alongside two cinemas (naturally), a research library, and the rooftop Skywalker Grill.
Lucas has spoken about beginning his art collecting while at college, buying original comic art for around $30 because it was what he could afford. His collection now numbers more than 40,000 works.
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There will be major artwork inside from Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Pablo Picasso. But then the collection takes a very sharp turn. Norman Rockwell sits alongside N.C. Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish; original Flash Gordon and Peanuts comic strips share space with manga and contemporary art; and photography, murals, and film production art all make an appearance. Star Wars is there too, of course, although superfans should be warned it reportedly accounts for only around seven percent of the gallery space.
Inside the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts
The 300,000-sq-ft building in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park.
The spaceship-like structure was designed by MAD Architects’ Ma Yansong.
Though known best for Star Wars, movie memorabilia takes up only nine percent of works on show.
Alongside the 100,000 sq ft of gallery space there is a research library.
And naturally, not just one cinema, but two.
The Skywalker Grill features a menu serving Lucas’ favorite dishes.
“Art is emotional; it’s not intellectual,” Lucas told Vogue. “Are you emotionally connected to it? If you’re connected, it’s art.” If the Getty has its Old Masters, LACMA its encyclopaedic sweep, and the Broad its contemporary art, the Lucas Museum is trying to do something rather more personal – a given when Lucas owns a lot of the art and his name is, quite literally, hanging above the doors.
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(The cornily named rooftop Skywalker Grill inside takes its inspiration from Skywalker Ranch, with a menu featuring the director’s favorite foods – Vanity Fair reports Lucas spent more than a year working with the kitchen refining its Wagyu burger alone.)
Lucas’s museum is, ultimately, as much an expression of his own interests as it is a new LA cultural institution. Does that make the Lucas Museum a remarkable act of philanthropy, an exceptionally elaborate collector’s cabinet, or a $1bn vanity project? We will leave that for today’s visitors to decide.
