George Lucas just became one of my biggest illustration heroes of all time.
And he’s not even an illustrator.
Lucas has always been one of those creative people I’ve admired. He gave us Star Wars and helped create Indiana Jones. He built Industrial Light & Magic and pushed filmmaking technology forward in ways that changed the industry.
But there’s something else about George Lucas that I’ve always appreciated.
He understands illustrators.
Throughout his career, Lucas has relied on artists to take the things he could see in his head and put them on paper, canvas and eventually computer screens. Long before a set was built or a camera started rolling, illustrators helped make those worlds visible.
That’s what illustrators do.
We tell stories in a single image. Sometimes with humor. Sometimes with emotion. Sometimes with incredible detail. But the job is almost always communication.
So why has George Lucas suddenly moved way up my list of illustration heroes?
Because he put his money where his mouth is.
More than a billion dollars of it.
George and Mellody. Courtesy Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Photograph by Deanna and Ed Templeton.
The newly opened Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, co-founded by Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, is dedicated to something Lucas calls “the people’s art”—visual storytelling in all its forms. Hobson played an important role in bringing the museum to life, but its mission reflects something Lucas has believed for decades: that popular art and the artists who create it deserve to be taken seriously.
The collection moves from ancient art and traditional painting to illustration, comics, murals, photography and cinema.
And right there alongside artists like Frida Kahlo and Vincent van Gogh are Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Jessie Willcox Smith and Frank Frazetta.
Illustrators.
Courtesy Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Photo by Paul Salveson
So what the heck is “narrative art”?
Lucas puts it this way:
“Narrative art tells the story of a society—what the common beliefs are that hold it together.”
I’d put it even more simply.
It’s art that illustrates a story.
And when you look at art that way, the line we’ve drawn between “fine art” and illustration starts getting pretty fuzzy.
In fact, I’d argue that some of the greatest artists in history were illustrators.
Michelangelo illustrated scenes and figures from the Bible. So did Raphael. So did Leonardo da Vinci. Rembrandt painted biblical stories, historical scenes and portraits commissioned by wealthy patrons and organizations.
They were creating images to communicate stories and ideas.
They were illustrating.
Now, I’m sure there are plenty of people in the fine-art world who would take issue with me calling Michelangelo or Raphael illustrators.
That’s okay.
I think the art establishment has been wrong about illustration for a very long time.
Somewhere along the way, a distinction was created between “fine art” and “commercial art.” Put a painting in a gallery and it’s Art with a capital A. Put an equally beautiful painting on the cover of a magazine, in a book or on a poster and suddenly it’s something less.
I’ve never bought that distinction.
Apparently George Lucas hasn’t either.
He started collecting art while he was still in college. His first purchase was an Alley Oop comic strip that reportedly cost him about $35. Later he began collecting Norman Rockwell. Steven Spielberg, another Rockwell collector, jokes that Lucas now owns about three times as many Rockwells as he does.
But Lucas didn’t just collect this work and hang it on the walls of his house.
He built a museum for it.
And getting that museum built wasn’t easy. The project went through years of rejected proposals, location changes and legal battles before finally finding a home in Los Angeles. Lucas stuck with it because, as he said shortly before the museum opened, he felt “very, very strongly” about honoring illustrators.
That means something to me.
The finished museum is pretty spectacular too. Designed by architect Ma Yansong, the building looks like something between a cloud and a spaceship—which seems pretty appropriate for George Lucas.
The Lucas Museum Campus. Courtesy Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Photography by Patrick Price.
I haven't made it there yet, but I've watched enough video from inside the museum to know it's now very high on my list.
Because this isn't just a museum filled with things I happen to like.
It's a museum making a statement.
Illustration belongs here.
Comic art belongs here. Movie concept art belongs here. Children's book illustration belongs here. The artists who created those images deserve to have their work preserved, studied and appreciated right alongside the artists we've traditionally placed in museums.
I know it's just one museum.
But what a museum.
George Lucas isn't one of my illustration heroes because he's an illustrator. He's one because he may have become one of the most important champions illustration has ever had.
And for an illustrator who's spent his life telling stories with pictures, that's pretty damn cool.
Thank you, George.
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