NewzLOS ANGELES (AP) — “Star Wars” creator George Lucas called his Lucas Museum of Narrative Art a “temple to the people's art” and a project that “almost broke my will.” Seventeen years after it was first envisioned, it will be opening to the public on Tuesday in Los Angeles.The $1 billion institution in Exposition Park near his alma mater the University of Southern California has become a life's work for him and his wife and co-founder, businesswoman Mellody Hobson. Its galaxies of galleries are filled almost entirely with their own collections.The 82-year-old Lucas has a love of doing things that are supposed to be impossible. The project was first conceived for San Franciso and Chicago and reached the initial design phase in both cities before Lucas was “kicked out,” as he put it.
The Los Angeles museum mixes the work of populist painters, commercial illustrators and comic artists with the kind of fine artists more associated with major museums.Here's a look at five things to make sure to see on a visit.Slay, princessIn the considerable green space that surrounds the museum, visitors will see statuary that includes a sculpture of Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia in her metal bikini choking Jabba the Hutt to death, a scene from 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.”Titled “The Hutt Slayer” and commissioned for the space, it's one of a handful of inevitable nods to “Star Wars” in and around the museum, but that faraway galaxy represents just a small fraction of its holdings and initial exhibits.The inaugural “Star Wars in Motion” exhibit shows vehicles used in the original trilogy and the Lucas-directed prequels. A Naboo starfighter hangs in a more permanent spot in the lobby of its library. A stroll on the paths through the grass will also bring views of statues of Yoda, Grogu, and Natalie Portman's Padmé Amidala.Banksy, high above the streetThe museum is full of paintings from artists like Norman Rockwell who have long been considered the opposite of cool.
But it has no lack of younger, hipper content.In a not-easy-to-find fifth-floor gallery are two walls of stenciled murals from the elusive and apparently recently “unmasked” British street artist Banksy, who worked personally with Lucas on his contributions to the institution.The work, whose presence was announced in the final weeks before the museum's opening, includes the familiar image of a girl releasing a heart-s… The $1 billion institution in Exposition Park near his alma mater the University of Southern California has become a life’s work for him and his wife and co-founder, businesswoman Mellody Hobson. The 82-year-old Lucas has a love of doing things that are supposed to be impossible.
Here’s a look at five things to make sure to see on a visit. Slay, princess In the considerable green space that surrounds the museum, visitors will see statuary that includes a sculpture of Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia in her metal bikini choking Jabba the Hutt to death, a scene from 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” Titled “The Hutt Slayer” and commissioned for the space, it’s one of a handful of inevitable nods to “Star Wars” in and around the museum, but that faraway galaxy represents just a small fraction of its holdings and initial exhibits. The inaugural “Star Wars in Motion” exhibit shows vehicles used in the original trilogy and the Lucas-directed prequels.
Banksy, high above the street The museum is full of paintings from artists like Norman Rockwell who have long been considered the opposite of cool. But it has no lack of younger, hipper content. In a not-easy-to-find fifth-floor gallery are two walls of stenciled murals from the elusive and apparently recently “unmasked” British street artist Banksy, who worked personally with Lucas on his contributions to the institution.
The work, whose presence was announced in the final weeks before the museum’s opening, includes the familiar image of a girl releasin…
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