"Narrative art tells the story of a society—most importantly, what the common beliefs are that hold it together."

George Lucas, Co-founder

Frida Kahlo, Autorretrato dedicado al Dr. Eloesser (Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser), 1940, © 2021 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph: Randy Dodson, Courtesy Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Norman Rockwell, Shuffleton’s Barbershop, 1950, Shuffleton’s Barbershop illustration © SEPS licensed by Curtis Licensing, Indianapolis, IN. All rights reserved.

Kadir Nelson, Art Connoisseurs, 2019, Art Connoisseurs © 2019 Kadir Nelson

Narrative art has proliferated in photography, magazine and book illustration, film, and digital media, addressing wide audiences and reminding them of the myths and stories that influence everyday life. ​

The Lucas Museum shows how narrative art influences societies—shaping beliefs, communicating values, inspiring imagination, and creating communities. We empower people to engage with artworks through the compelling stories they tell.​

Narrative art is created to represent stories through images. Much of the world’s artistic expression has been motivated by storytelling, transmitting narratives rooted in religion, myth, history, literature, or events. Narrative art appears in many forms, from cave drawings and hieroglyphics to paintings, murals, illustration, comics, and sculpture.

Yinka Shonibare, Crash Willy, 2009, mannequin, Dutch wax–printed cotton textile, leather, fiberglass, and metal, 52 x 78 x 102 3/8 in. (132 x 198 x 260 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, 2017.2, © Yinka Shonibare CBE. All Rights Reserved, DACS/ARS, NY 2021

N. C. Wyeth, “Slag was a figure for sculptors” (1918), illustration for “The Mildest-Mannered Man,” Everybody’s Magazine, 1919, Oil on canvas 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, 2020.87.1

Shepard Fairey and Ernesto Yerena, Immigration Reform Now!, 2010, stencil, silkscreen, and collage on canvas, 60 x 44 1/8 in. (152.4 x 112.1 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, © Obey Giant Art Inc.

Ralph McQuarrie, production painting for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Artoo and Threepio leave the pod in the desert), January 31, 1975, acrylic and gouache on illustration board, 13 ¼ x 20 in. (33.7 x 50.8 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, 2013.005241, © and ™ Lucasfilm Ltd. 2020 All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.

Henri Cartier-Bresson, A farewell service for the late actor Danjuro at the Aoyama Funeral Hall, Tokyo, according to Shinto rites, 1965; printed c. 1990s, gelatin silver print, 11 13/16 x 15 15/16 in. (30 x 40.5 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, Henri Cartier-Bresson © Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum

George Herriman, Krazy Kat Sunday strip, January 1923, pencil and ink on Bristol board, 21 x 19 in. (53.3 x 48.3 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, 2019.19.1, image courtesy of Heritage Auctions/HA.com

Miguel Covarrubias, Rumba, 1942, lithograph, 9 ¼ x 13 in. (23.5 x 33 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, © María Elena Rico Covarrubias

Jack Kirby (penciler) and Frank Giacoia (inker), cover for Black Panther, vol. 1, no. 6, 1977, ink and graphite on Bristol board, 17 x 11 ½ in. (43.2 x 29.2 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, © MARVEL. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions/HA.com

Criselda Vasquez, The New American Gothic, 2017, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in. (182.9 x 121.9 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, courtesy of Criselda Vasquez, the artist

Poster for St. Louis Blues, 1929, ink on paper, 41 x 27 in. (104.1 x 68.6 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles

Frida Kahlo, Autorretrato dedicado al Dr. Eloesser (Self-Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser), 1940, oil on masonite, 34 x 26 x 3 1/2 in. (86.4 x 66 x 8.9 cm) framed, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, © 2021 Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico, D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph: Randy Dodson, courtesy Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Byoutsuchi Sonritsu (Sun Li), 1827-30, Oban woodblock print, 14 15/16 x 10 7/16 in. (37.9 x 26.5 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles

Jeffrey Catherine Jones, cover for Star Hunter & Voodoo Planet, 1968, acrylic on board, 23 1/2 x 14 in. (59.7 x 35.6 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, © Jeffrey Catherine Jones Estate/Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions/HA.com

Robert Colescott, George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook, 1975, acrylic on canvas, 78 1/2 x 98 1/4 in. (199.4 x 249.6 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, © 2021 The Robert H. Colescott Separate Property Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Charles White, presentation study for Mary McLeod Bethune Mural, 1977–78, acrylic on illustration board, 27 ¾ x 36 ½ in. (70.5 x 92.7 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, 2019.13 © The Charles White Archives

Kadir Nelson, Art Connoisseurs, 2019, oil on panel, 60 x 50 x 1 1/2 in. (152.4 x 127 x 3.8 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, Art Connoisseurs © 2019 Kadir Nelson

Jessie Willcox Smith, The Sewing Lesson, cover for Collier’s, 1907, watercolor, gouache, and charcoal on board, 21 x 17 1/4 in. (53.3 x 43.8 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, 2018.2, image courtesy The Illustrated Gallery Fort Washington, PA

Jacob Lawrence, An Underground Railroad, 1967, gouache and tempera on paper, 17 ¾ x 14 5/8 in. (45.1 x 37.1 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, 2018.248, © 2020 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image Courtesy DC Moore Gallery, New York

Paul Cadmus, The Haircut, 1986, egg tempera on fiberboard, 21 x 19 in. (53.3 x 48.3 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, © 2021 Estate of Paul Cadmus/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY/Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York

Carrie Mae Weems, Untitled, (Outtake from the Kitchen Table Series), 1990–92, gelatin silver print, 28 ¼ x 28 ¼ in. (71.76 x 71.76), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, 2018.95, © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Norman Rockwell, Shuffleton's Barbershop, 1950, oil on canvas, 33 x 31 in. (83.8 x 78.7 cm), Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles, 2018.353, Shuffleton’s Barbershop illustration © SEPS licensed by Curtis Licensing, Indianapolis, IN. All rights reserved.

A Collection
Made of Stories

The Lucas Museum’s foundational collection, shaped and funded by founders George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, has works by illustrators like Norman Rockwell, Jesse Wilcox Smith, Maxfield Parrish, and Andrew Wyeth; comic artists like Winsor McCay, Frank Frazetta, George Herriman, Jack Kirby, and Robert Crumb; muralists such as Judith F. Baca and Diego Rivera; as well as other artists like Frida Kahlo, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and Robert Colescott. The museum also holds film archives, including the entire Historic Lucasfilm Archives and the Separate Cinema Archive.
Background Image

Judith F. Baca, final coloration for 1950: The Development of Suburbia, for The Great Wall of Los Angeles, 1983, Judith F. Baca/Image courtesy ofthe SPARC Archives (SPARCinLA.org)