When it came to chronicling the contents of George Lucas’ monumental new architectural undertaking, the MAD-designed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles (opening 22 September 2026 – see last year’s architectural preview), there was only ever one candidate for the publication. German art magnate and monograph master Taschen was assigned the task of assembling this mighty two-volume exploration of the museum’s expansive collection.
Lucas’ museum, set in a prime 13-acre site on LA’s Exposition Park, is home to all manner of materials and artworks that focus on visual storytelling, a display that ‘connects traditions of image-making across centuries, cultures, and mediums’. While the building itself requires 300,000 sq feet of exhibition space (designed by Ma Yansong of MAD with Stantec), the accompanying book is no less ambitious.
Introduced by Ryan Linkof, senior curator and head of film programmes at the LMNA (a former founding curator at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and curator at Los Angeles County Museum of Art), the book also includes texts by Lucas himself and fellow director Guillermo del Toro.
Both are longstanding adherents to storyboard-driven narratives about fantastical worlds and characters. The editor is Jessica Hundley, author of a number of books including studies of Dennis Hopper, Gram Parsons and David Lynch and Taschen’s The Library of Esoterica series.
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art monograph by Taschen
The two volumes draw on an abundance of visual richness, covering every genre from sci-fi to Westerns, via children’s literature, fantasy art, and graphic novels. Key artists and themes are given plenty of space and room to breathe, with focuses on the work of painter and muralist Thomas Hart Benton, illustrator Jessie Willcox Smith, fantasy art pioneer Frank Frazetta, romantic classicist Maxfield Parrish, and all-American icon Norman Rockwell.
Unsurprisingly, there’s a copious amount of material drawn from the world-building of Lucas’ Star Wars series, including concept art and production paintings, costumes and vehicles, alongside things that obviously fall in del Toro’s wheelhouse, like Mexican horror comics.
Arranged thematically, the monograph is awash with classic imagery, inter-generational connections and examples of every form of media, from cave painting to digital art. It’s the ultimate takeaway from a museum that promises to deliver big in every way.
As well as the 6kg+ slip-cased Classic Edition shown here, there’ll also be a catalogue available in the company’s more compact 45 Edition format, with a smaller-still Piccolo edition for a more pocketable distillation of the collection.
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, edited by Jessica Hundley, Taschen $200 / £175 Taschen.com, @Taschen, LucasMuseum.org, @LucasMuseum