George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars—one of the highest-grossing movie franchises of all time—has been trying very hard to build a museum in his name. His early attempts failed spectacularly in San Francisco and Chicago due to the lethal combination of community opposition and the harsh critique of both urban architects and art critics.
But now the “George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art”—an extreme vanity project that will cost $1.5 billion—has found support in Los Angeles.
“It’s a natural place to have this museum, in the creative capital of the world and in the geographic center of the city. It’s a banner day for L.A.,” Mayor Eric Garcetti announced.
The 275,000-square-foot futuristic looking Lucas museum is meant to house and display his own art collection, which reportedly mostly consists of the works of American sentimentalist Norman Rockwell, Mad magazine covers, Flash Gordon comic book and memorabilia from the Star Wars films. Bloomberg described the collection with one word: “lowbrow.”
The term “narrative art” is nonsensical and seems intended to suggest the museum is something new.
“Narrative art is visual art that tells a story. It manifests itself in every kind of medium, in every culture, in every form that you can imagine,” the website of the yet-to-be-built museum reads. The question is how will this “narrative art” museum be different from any other great U.S. art museum?
Do we really need an enormous weird looking structure in a prime urban location to see Norman Rockwell and Star Wars props under one roof? There’s already the biggest collection of Norman Rockwell in Massachusetts. And there is a great selection of Star Wars film merchandise at the beautiful Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York.
The Lucas museum, however, won’t cost Los Angeles a penny. Lucas is so set on the idea, he’s vowed to cover all the costs in an “epic act of generosity and altruism,” as Don Bacigalupi, the museum’s president described it.
Previously, when Lucas made a similar offer he didn’t get any takers. In 2009, he set his sights on San Francisco’ national park, but ran into community opposition. Then he presented his “Lucas museum” project in Chicago, but faced resistance from Friends of the Parks.
Urban architects were dismissive of the museum as well calling the design plan a “big lumpy mountain,” an “enormous amoeba,” “blob architecture,” and “a monument to its patron rather than a modest addition to a public place.”
LA, however, is somehow more excited about a new museum. Mayor Garcetti told the Los Angeles Times that the museum will lead to tens of thousands of construction jobs. He is also positive that people from around the world will come to the Lucas Museum to see the original Darth Vader mask and a bunch of Norman Rockwell paintings.
We’ll see…
