When you hear the name “George Lucas,” the first thing you think of is Star Wars. And so, when the museum Lucas co-founded, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, opens later this year in Los Angeles, Star Wars will obviously play a role. However, the full list of exhibitions that’ll be on display at the opening was just announced, and a galaxy far, far, away is but a mere fraction of the collection.
Scheduled to open September 22 in downtown Los Angeles, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will feature around 1,200 objects spread across 30 galleries, taking up about 100,000 square feet of gallery space. And while some of us (like me) would be incredibly happy if that was all Star Wars, the whole point of the museum is much grander than that. To illustrate, here’s a video, followed by the full list of exhibitions that’ll be on display when the museum opens.
And here’s the list, according to a press release
- Architecture – the innovative designs that inspired the architectural vision of the museum
- Benton – selected works of Thomas Hart Benton’s depiction of American life
- Children’s stories – illustrations of children’s literature by Beatrix Potter, Leo Politi, E.H. Shepard, Jacob Lawrence, and more
- Cinema – a selection of production designs, props, and costumes from the Lucas Archives
- Everyday life – a series of galleries dedicated to visual stories about Childhood, Community, Family, Love, Motherhood, Play, School, Sports, and Work, expressing the myths that have both reflected and shaped modern American society
- Civic Life – artists’ portrayals of experience in the courthouse, the polling place, the political headquarters, and more
- Comics • Graphic Stories – a showcase of the museum’s deep holdings of American and European comics, including works by Mœbius, Marie Severin, Jack Kirby, Alison Bechdel, Jim Lee, Frank Miller, and Rafael Navarro
- Manga • Anime – selections from the Museum’s collection of the influential work in Japanese illustration and animation
- Frazetta – selected illustrations and book covers by the flamboyant Frank Frazetta
- History – paintings, prints, and illustrations telling (and pointedly re-telling) the stories of major historical events
- Jessie Willcox Smith – classic scenes by the illustrator of fairy tales and childhood scenes
- Murals – large-scale, public works of narrative art by Judith F. Baca, Diego Rivera, and JR
- Narrative Forms: a series of galleries highlighting narrative art across genres of Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
, and Science Fiction by artists including Julie Bell, Boris Vallejo, Ken Kelly, Georges Méliès, John C. Berkey, and Jeffrey Catherine Jones - Parrish – lush, dreamy visions from the early 20th century by illustrator Maxfield Parrish
- Photography – powerful documentary images by Robert Capa, Gordon Parks, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Dorothea Lange, and others
- Rockwell – a selection of the Museum’s renowned holdings of works by premier American illustrator Norman Rockwell
- Wyeth – book illustrations from the 1910s through the 1940s by the incomparable N.C. Wyeth
- Western Stories – myths of the American West, including wagon trains, shoot-outs, frontier towns, and more
It’s a very eclectic mix of exhibits, tackling all angles in relation to “narrative art.” And while we’d imagine there could be Star Wars in multiple sections, we think most of it will be in that “Cinema” section, such as the Doug Chiang concept art at the top of this article. We also already know there will be a life-size Naboo Starfighter, a statue of General Grievous on his bike, a full-size landspeeder from A New Hope, the original plans and model for the Millennium Falcon, a Darth Vader costume, and a full-sized Yoda model.
This all sounds incredibly awesome, though. In particular, the Normal Rockwells sound fascinating, Georges Méliès’ sci-fi art sounds incredible, a full Frank Frazetta exhibit is excellent, all of the comic art sounds unbelievable, and that’s just the start.
You can read more about the museum at its official website.
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