The George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art – Two (Re)Views

D. D. Degg Published: September 11, 2026 1 minute 6 comments

This month filmmaker George Lucas’ one billion dollar Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open to the public.

Reviews of the Los Angeles comic museum which features comic and illustration art side by side with classic art has drawn high praise and pans in reviews. The praise comes from L.A. news sources who have no intention of upsetting the Hollywood icon.

Jane Horowitz of The Los Angeles Times previews the institution covering a bit of the controversy.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, with an eclectic collection of more than 40,000 works ranging from Frida Kahlo to R. Crumb, is diving headlong into one of the oldest and most fraught conversations in the art world: What belongs in an art museum?

Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts selection of artworks

Maximiliano Durôn for Art News in N.Y., though impressed with the collection of art, has a different take.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has decided it’s not worth writing a single one.

The problem as Maximiliano sees it is that there is no history or context accompanying the artwork:

But what is immediately apparent is the lack of didactics anywhere in the museum. The argument here, as confirmed by the museum, is that looking should be privileged. At an art museum, looking should indeed be prioritized, but a museum also serves another important function that the Lucas attempts to sidestep: the production of knowledge and the education of the public.

He also does not like the seemingly random placement of the art, there is, if you will, no continuity.

feature image is a detail of the Hufton and Crow image of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

Comments ⁶

John Hines

Do they have nerd-docents or is that a thing?

Jeff Kersten

“The people perish from lack of knowledge…”

howard johnson

these days: “From fine art designed explicitly to extract wealth from the weathy to comic book movie franchises that are assembled to extract wealth for the wealthy, those works are first focus grouped and then marketed without much inspiration in between. ironically only “work for hire” illustrators seem to be exempt from this cycle in that there between the commission and the execution is space for creation.” sez a bitter set-aside illustrator anyway, take it with that. the point being such a museum is thereotically a good idea but it would work just as well—better for the likes of me, actually— as a web site or affordaable book

Brian B Bednarek

Why is it wrong to just put a bunch of stuff you like on a wall for others to possibly enjoy it as well!!!

D. D. Degg (admin)

Art News claims it is not just any wall but a museum wall. They say:
“At an art museum, looking should indeed be prioritized, but a museum also serves another important function that the Lucas attempts to sidestep: the production of knowledge and the education of the public. A museum’s primary role, like that of the discipline of art history, is to contextualize the art on view.”

Sep 13,2026

Louis Richards

Considering the unending arguments about “What is art?”
what’s wrong with a museum where the context is
“Stuff We Like.” ?

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