Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Opens With ‘Star Wars,’ Banksy, Whimsy, and Views Galore

George Lucas and Mellody Hobson’s massive Lucas Museum of Narrative Art — the building designed by architect Ma Yansong that comprises 300,000 square feet and a 13-acre campus — has finally landed in Los Angeles, more than 16 years after they first conceived an enclave dedicated to visual storytelling.

Located in the city’s Exposition Park, adjacent to Lucas’ alma mater, University of Southern California, it opens Tuesday after earlier plans to open in San Francisco and Chicago fell through. After visiting its ultimate locale, its dazzling display of some 1,300 artifacts (the permanent collection houses more than 40,000 works) within 30 galleries feels perfectly at home.

“This has been a long haul,” Lucas, who along with his spouse Hobson has invested more than $1 billion into the project, admitted during a press preview ahead of its opening. He called himself a “contrarian” and added, “I’m fascinated by doing things people say can’t be done.”

Still, he said, the opening was a celebration to honor illustrators of stories, specifically myths as he looked to connect the thread that makes his museum different. “In the beginning, especially for a few thousand years, that was the only way you could tell a story, was with pictures.

“A picture is very powerful, and the stories are very powerful, and you combine them together, and those two elements create a society,” he added. “And that’s why I wanted to build this, because narrative art creates a group of people with a common belief system, and that common belief system allows them to work together, not kill each other, and do things that one person can’t do.”

There is a lot to take in. The undulating space unfolds like a labyrinth where it’s easy to get lost for hours, seemingly by design, while wandering the impressive collection. And while the through-line is “visual storytelling,” it can feel like there’s no curatorial rhyme or reason to what’s on view. Round one corner and a life-sized Cowardly Lion from Wizard of Oz greets you, round another and there’s a stunning self-portrait of Frida Kahlo from 1940 and elsewhere a photo of her taken in 1931; a collection of Banksy is displayed near a golf cart armed with torpedoes and guns appearing to mock Trump, complete with a bucket of KFC fried chicken and a hamburger sitting on the seat. What it lacks in cohesion, however, also attributes to its charm — it’s filled with childlike whimsy, wonder, and inspiration despite it feeling a bit disjointed. Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Several galleries are dedicated to Illustrator icons such as Norman Rockwell, Jessie Willcox Smith, and Frank Frazetta. Other sections are grouped by topics, like Manga, Children’s Stories, Graphic Stories, Romance, Science Fiction, Love and Community, and Work.