Andy Warhol in the musem of George Lucas

In Los Angeles a museum of George Lucas will be built – Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. In three years, the American producer will present wide audience with, among others, film frames from Citizen Kane movie, comics with Garfield cat, oryginal illustrations from Winnie Pooh book, pictures by Norman Rockwell and Alfons Mucha, as well as many photos and digital graphics by Andy Warhol, a worldwide famous artist of Rusyn background who does not need to be introduced to anyone.

After some problems with establishing a museum in Chicago, for several months Lucas had been looking for a new place. He was taking into consideration Los Angeles and San Francisco. Finally, the museum will be built in the City of Angels. It will be entirely financed by George Lucas, additionally, almost 10 thousand of souvenirs (of a value around one and a half  of billion dollars) that will be located there, will come from the producer’s private collection. The idea of the museum arose several years ago. Futuristic style of the building was designed by a Chinese architect Ma Yansong of MAD Architects. From the outside, it will resemble a sinusoid form, elements of the roof will be designed for small squares with trees and plant terraces. The area inside is designed for about 2,5ha, within which about 1ha is a place for galleries. The rest will be occupied by a conference room, lecture rooms, a restaurant and cinemas.

The museum will be equipped with souvenirs related to what is covered by the definition of “narrative arts.” It is a kind of art which visualizes, tells some story. It covers pictures, illustrations, photography, film, animation and graphics. The collection that will be presented in the Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts will be devided into three parts: The History of Narrative Art, The Art of Cinema, Digital Art. The first one will cover among others: Beatrix Potter (“Of Peter Rabbit”), E.H. Shepard’s Winnie Pooh, comic books by Jim Davies about Garfield or Charles Schultz’s Peanuts. The second part will cover souvenirs related to cinema art. They will relate to making films (e.g. Star Wars, Citizen Kane, Indiana Jones), make-up (e.g. The Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, Frankenstein, Albert Nobbs), visual effects, including costumes (presented will be e.g. costumes from Dior, Alexander McQueen) and animated films (Looney Tunes, The Jungle Book, Dumbo, Who Framed Roger Rabbit).

The last part will be dedicated to digital art and new technologies. There, you will have the opportunity to see among others how special effects were made for films such as Avatar, Jurassic Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of thе Rings or for animated films like Shrek or Toy Story. An interesting thing will be graphics by Andy Warhol that were made by him in the middle of the 1980s on Amiga 100 computer. A few years ago the works from old diskettes were recovered by the painter’s museum.

Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts is going to be a place without barriers, a place in which there are no divisions into high and popular art, which will help to unrestrainedly get to know the broad contents of narrative art.
Phot. above: lucasmuseum.org.