Lucas Museum Opens Mural Gallery With Banksy And Judy Baca Works

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opened to the public last month, has dedicated a fifth-floor gallery to murals, an unconventional category for an art museum but fitting for Los Angeles. This space features works by artists such as Banksy and Judy Baca, with some pieces exhibiting overtly political themes.

Among the prominent works is a large reproduction of Diego Rivera's 1933 mural for Rockefeller Center, known for its pro-worker and anti-capitalist stance. Nelson Rockefeller had the original destroyed, and Rivera later created a smaller version in Mexico City, which served as the basis for this reproduction. In an adjacent gallery, 12 works by Banksy are on view, an unusual institutional setting for the anonymous British street artist who typically avoids museum shows. Most museum staff were reportedly unaware of these specific installations until the media preview.

Speculation about Banksy's identity has persisted for decades, with an extensive Reuters investigation earlier this year identifying him as Robin Gunningham, a conclusion reached in some previous investigations. Tracey Bates, the Lucas Museum's chief executive, could not clarify how Banksy's works arrived at the institution.“He's an incredible living artist of our time, but an incredibly elusive artist,” Bates said.“I would say that George has always been a huge advocate for muralists all around the world, and he's always been a big fan of Banksy. So it's been a real meeting of minds with the two of them.” A recent Wall Street Journal profile indicated that Banksy's art played a key role in George Lucas's courtship of Mellody Hobson, his now-wife and museum co-founder.

Banksy's pieces are accompanied by minimal labels, consistent with the institution's approach. The recognizable“Girl with Balloon,” stenciled on London walls starting in 2002, depicts a young girl reaching for a red balloon. It is presented on a thick wall segment, appearing as if removed from its original urban site. Also featured is a maquette for the sculpture“Flag Man,” which appeared in London's Waterloo Place earlier this year. An additional Banksy installation on the museum's second floor presents a pair of lion sculptures; one holds a whip in its jaw with a bloodied muzzle, and a black top hat lies on the floor, labeled“Pair of ornamental garden Lions with added parts, 2026.”

The fifth-floor gallery, boasting 25ft-high ceilings, is ideal for murals, alongside preparatory renderings and sketches.“We have a lot of mural studies in the collection,” said Ryan Linkof, the museum's senior curator. Drawings and paintings by John Biggers, Dean Cornwell, and Charles White are also on display. Facing the Rivera mural are color preparatory drawings for“The Great Wall of Los Angeles” ( 1974-present ), an epic history of Los Angeles conceived by Judy Baca and executed by students and community members. Baca“envisioned a long narrative of another history of California, one which included ethnic peoples, women and minorities who were so invisible in conventional textbook accounts,” she states on the project's website. In 2021, the Mellon Foundation awarded Baca and her team a $5 million grant to extend the mural's historical scope from the 1960s to 2019, with completion anticipated in 2028, in time for the summer Olympic Games.

Linkof highlighted murals' consistent importance to the museum.“Illustration is important to us, both in terms of a professional category of people who are illustrators, but also this idea of illustrating stories,” he noted.“Murals are fundamentally a form of illustration, and they often tell histories in a very specific way, social concerns expressed in really clear, didactic ways because they're meant for broad public consumption.”

We previously reported:

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles will install permanent fences around its public plaza, despite its initial emphasis on accessibility.

The new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, co-founded by George Lucas, opened in Los Angeles last month after costing $1 billion and 20 years to build.

Source: The Art Newspaper

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