I hope you are doing well.

Angelenos may be sad about the Southland (see "Not Digging," below), but there is reason to be cheerful if you love museums.

Hot off the completion of the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens its doors! It held its press preview this week, and opens to the public on September 22nd. Like the Geffen Galleries, the LMNA plays with expectations both in architecture and curation.

And this one delivers the wide-eyed wonderment of the cinematic creations of the museum's cofounder George Lucas: a five-story, 300,000-square-foot, fluid structure, wrapped in a sinewy, rippling and robot-buffed skin of over 1,500 customized gray-white panels, designed by the architect Ma Yansong of MAD, with Stantec. It sits within a 13-acre campus, with scenic gardens extending from ground level to the roof, designed by Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA. And it displays a portion of Lucas's collection of some 40,000 pieces of "narrative" art. The goal for George Lucas, said his wife and museum cofounder Mellody Hobson, was "a building so unique that eight-year-olds and 80-year-olds would equally want to come inside." There is much to say about it, but in brief, here are a few notes:

Central plaza and oculus at Lucas Museum. Photo by Hufton+Crow

The museum has been some 17 years in the making, dating from when Lucas first offered it to Presidio Park in San Francisco. It went next to Hobson’s hometown of Chicago, but there Yansong’s 2014 competition-winning design was thwarted by a lawsuit from a group of opponents. Then San Francisco came back in play, but so did Los Angeles. Mayor Eric Garcetti pushed for it to be built on an empty parking lot at the west end of Exposition Park. In 2017, LA garnered the project, and, after a lengthy and complex construction process, here it is. As Lucas told the crowd at the press preview Wednesday, "This has been a long haul... between getting kicked out of cities and trying to get this built... but I'm a contrarian. I'm fascinated by doing things that people say can't be done."

Robert Colescott, George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook, 1975

What is Narrative Art?

Everything about this museum is driven by the notion of “narrative art.” This term seems to have entered the lexicon in the 1950s and '60s when the fine art world favored Abstract Expressionism, then Conceptual and Minimalist art. It was used – often dismissively – to refer to paintings and sculpture that told visual stories about people, also known as representational or figurative art or realism. By way of musical analogy, this was like suggesting that minimalist composer John Cage’s 4′33″ of silence was artistically superior to Dolly Parton’s Jolene.

Representations of family. Photo by Frances Anderton

Narrative art was having a heyday last century with the explosion of printed stories — children’s books, comic books, pulp fiction novels, advertising, popular magazines and of course, the movies. George Lucas grew up loving this popular visual culture, from Beatrix Potter’s illustrations of Peter Rabbit and friends through Norman Rockwell’s wry paintings of small-town America and Flash Gordon comic strips to the detailed worldbuilding by concept artists Lucas worked with.

He saw in these beautifully rendered illusory worlds the construction of meaning and myths that bind peoples, and set about collecting this kind of art and creating it. At the museum you’ll find a small portion of his huge holdings, curated by Lucas into themes such as childhood, love and family, above. You will also find Star Wars memorabilia: costumes, set paintings and props like NabooStarfighter, below. 

Photo by Frances Anderton

What about the building and the gardens?

The building by Chinese architect Ma Yansong is intended as a piece of narrative architecture, which is typically understood as architecture that is symbolic or evocative of feeling and associations. That can take the form of a period revival or thematic styles — of which we have many in LA – but the Lucas Museum is not in an obvious style. It is, however, intended to evoke emotion and the feeling of being on a journey.

The soaring north lobby. Photo by Hufton+Crow

Even though it's hard not to look at the building and think "space ship," the architect likens his long, fluid building to both a cloud and the shade-giving tree. He also points out that the experience is meant to be a journey -- one that starts in a large plaza area lit by an oculus, pulling the eye skyward, and taking the visitor through multiple spatial experiences -- among them a soaring lobby, biomorphic store and cafeteria, elevators like interstellar transit which zoom up to the 4th floor galleries. All are carefully crafted subworlds within Ma's overarching concept.

Garden viewed from 4th floor. Photo by Frances Anderton

The garden extends the narrative theme, though here the story is one of a journey through the “California transept.” "We looked to California's mountains, foothills, valleys, mesas, canyons, and meadows, and some streams and rivers, and to the way topography, planting, and light can change the feeling of a place as you move through it. There is no single route through the gardens. Paths climb, descend, cross bridges, and embrace sculptures," said Lehrer.

All of this is realized with the stagecraft of the cofounder. Expanses of lawn and thousands of plants and trees flourish over a topography of cleverly concealed Geofoam blocks. The building, both futuristic and organic, was achievable thanks to today’s advanced digital tools, and a highly complex structure, realized by teams of skilled fabricators. But Ma says he and Lucas wanted to create effect, and intentionally tried "to hide all these architectural details" and the structure of the bridge-like steel structure, with its very large span, which "is so amazing. It's so beautiful." 

Artoo and Threepio beside Ralph McQuarrie's production painting for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Artoo and Threepio leave the pod in the desert), January 31, 1975. Photo by Frances Anderton

The building is a wow, and much of the collection a delight, and intriguing in how it blithely ignores art world conventions. Rockwell, Robert Crumb, Picasso, N.C. Wyeth, Kara Walker, Frank Frazetta, Judith F. Baca, and numerous other talents from commercial and "fine" art realms coexist in this museum. There are original artworks and reproductions, sentimental and critical portrayals of American society, film characters and human archetypes. Botero's Maternity poses in the garden close by Princess Leia Frees Herself from Jabba the Hutt. There is minimal wall text (as at the new LACMA building) contextualizing all this. We will see how this very personal collection and curation will play with audiences. But it seems like a natural fit for Los Angeles, capital of storytelling.

Now, if only this level of love and ambition could be applied to improving L.A.'s public realm!

Read much more soon about the architecture and construction in a book I'm working on for the Lucas Museum. And hear from Ma Yansong himself when he speaks at USC, Bovard Auditorium, 6:00–8:00 PM, on the evening of the museum's opening day, September 22nd. Click here to RSVP.

Design Things To Do

Top Pick: Eye-conoclastic Company tour

High in the pantheon of companies that exude pure LA esprit is l.a.Eyeworks, the maker of spectacles as wearable art since its founding in 1979 by the late Barbara McReynolds and Gai Gherardi. The pair met at high school in Huntington Beach, and created a store that became a happening place for artists and activists. They amplified their image with the long-running “A face is like a work of art. It deserves a great frame” advertising campaign shot in black-and-white by Greg Gorman, and snazzy spaces by architects such as Josh Schweitzer and Neil Denari.

l.a. Eyeworks interior by Escher GuneWardena Architecture. Image courtesy EGA.

The latest iteration is their flagship campus at 900 N. Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, made up of two connected buildings: a showroom + optical laboratory, and The Lens, a gallery and event space. It was designed by Escher GuneWardena Architecture, and this Thursday, September 3rd, 6:00–8:00 PM, Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena will lead a tour of the space with Brent Zerger of l.a.Eyeworks. The tour is hosted by L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. Tickets are going fast, and the Forum has kindly reserved a few for readers of this newsletter. Click here to RSVP.

Quick Picks

When sommelier and scholar India Mandelkern isn’t tasting and describing wine, she is writing eloquently about LA‘s public realm — and the region’s historic ambivalence towards it. She recently released a book on the making of the D line subway extension, and before that a history of Los Angeles street lighting, Electric Moons: A Social History of Street Lighting in Los Angeles. She will talk about Electric Moons this Thursday, September 3rd, 5:00–8:00 PM, at a free event hosted by WILD (Women in Lighting Design) at AIA/LA, 4450 West Adams, LA, CA 90016. Click here to RSVP.

Image courtesy Hat & Beard Press

The destruction of communities in Boyle Heights and West Adams to make way for freeways is fairly well-known; but how about Pasadena? On Sunday, September 13th, starting at 9:00 AM, Pasadena Heritage invites you to Take a Walk Through 15 Decades of Pasadena History, to find remnants of the “bungalow past” in an area that was “shaped as much by what was removed as by what remains” — thanks first to the railroad and then the 210 freeway, which displaced over 4,000 residents and severed portions of Pasadena from the rest of the city. Click here for tickets.

Composite image courtesy Pasadena Heritage

Go even further down memory lane at the Heritage Square Museum fundraiser to support the restoration of the 150-year old Perry House, an ornate Victorian mansion designed by E.F. Kysor and built in 1876 in Boyle Heights, then threatened with demolition and moved to Heritage Square Museum in 1975. Click here for tickets. While on the topic of moving houses, congratulations to Morgan Sykes Jaybush and collaborators for this New Yorker story about their post-fire Historic House Relocation Project (covered at its start on KCRW).

The Perry House. Image courtesy Chronically Undressed

Bergamot Station Arts Center holds its Fall Open House on Saturday, September 12th, 11:00 AM–9:00 PM. Campus-wide offerings at its art galleries, theaters, and eateries include a 4:30 PM viewing of the models for Case Study Adapt, with USC professor and CSA architect Geoffrey von Oeyen, at the Santa Monica City Gallery. I’ll do a Q & A with him about the program. The complex is at 2525 Michigan Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404, and City Gallery is in Suite F2. This is part of a happening month for the beach city, which hosts its first Ocean Way Festival, brought by Goldenvoice to the Santa Monica Beach on the weekend of September 26th and 27th.

The Metro station at Bergamot Station. Photo by Frances Anderton.

Before the bots produced renderings, some architects treated the hand-drawing or painting of imaginary spaces as an art form — like Elia Zenghelis (who died on August 30th), and Rick Gooding, below. Gooding's powerful SUBTERRANEA drawings are on show in the Arts District at Henrybuilt Studio, 806 Mateo, LA 90021. The exhibition closes soon, and will be marked with a reception and conversation with Gooding on Tuesday, September 15th, 6:00–8:00 PM. RSVP to hellolosangeles@henrybuilt.com

Rick Gooding stands in front of his works. Photo by Frances Anderton 

A trio of ticketed events is coming soon... FORT: LA holds its annual, fun-filled fundraiser at a private Schindler-designed home on Saturday, September 26th. Expect lunar and astrological amusements at Schindler and the Moon.

Another Schindler house (Fitzpatrick-Leland House) is the venue for Glow Up, the MAK Center's annual benefit dinner and auction, taking place on September 25th and 26th.

For the latest on style and luxe interior design, book now to hear from the luminaries at Design West Hollywood: Magical Thinking, September 29th–October 1st, in various Weho showrooms.

Schindler House. Photo by Frances Anderton 

What I'm Digging

Enjoying... this creative obstacle to AI video surveillance technology. Simon Weckert, a self-described "modern-day digital wizard," designed this explosive green, pink, and black pattern to “confuse the AI-powered object-detection system by subverting what the system recognizes as a person.” He says that AI systems learn “what humans statistically look like in millions of training images,” and this clash of color and pattern defies recognition. But would you wear this shirt in public? The AI bot may not see you, but all the humans will!

Image courtesy SIMON WECKERT

What I'm NOT Digging

Collective Gloom

I thought I was staycationing this summer because there is no better place to spend the vacation season than Los Angeles. But it turns out I’m on trend, not in a good way: we are staying put because “war, public health emergencies, economic recessions, and human-driven climate change” make us feel too unstable to travel, reports Zocalo. We are pessimistic about Los Angeles, says the LA Times, and in the midst of global disorder, per the NYT, and so far the upheavals haven’t produced the optimistic renewal that has followed some past crises and catastrophes. All the more reason to take yourself to the Lucas Museum, for a temporary escape into a high level of human creativity. 

Thank you as always for reading this newsletter. Please send your design news, questions, and comments to francesanderton@gmail.com. Get back issues here. Remind your friends to sign up for the newsletter here.

Yours with very best wishes,
Frances