The Tamesis
“In the beginning, people would ask, ‘Why is it dark?'” Lucas explains. “‘Animals eat us at night—why does this happen?’ So they said, ‘Let me tell you this story. “”
The Lucas Museum’s first gallery introduces its central concept, opening with scale replicas of cave paintings from Altamira, Spain, from at least 14,000 years ago, which were photographed with ultra-high-resolution cameras and displayed at close resolution on the gallery walls.
“George’s friend Caleb Deschanel” — the famed cinematographer — “has been very helpful because lighting is so important to the audience’s visual experience,” Hobson said. “George said, ‘I want it to look like you’re looking out the window.’ From the window of the Altamira painting, viewers will see a replica of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. “George called it ‘God’s comic book’ because the panels tell the story,” Hobson said.
“The church and state use illustrations to create the myths they want people to believe because most people can’t read,” she continued. The Vatican granted Lucas’ team special permission to photograph the church’s ceiling with a high-resolution camera. “Everyone can’t go to the Vatican,” she said. “It’s not just that: When you’re in the Sistine Chapel, the visuals are so distant. You can’t see some of the details of these stories. We brought them in.”
Soon they were roaming the museum’s more than 30 large galleries, most of which had scaled prints of the artwork “paper hung” so that Lucas could change the position and order. Hobson, the man in charge of the couple’s schedule, was on fire, recording details quickly and eager to attend the next engagement. Lucas browsed slowly and thoughtfully, re-examining nearly every piece, pausing to discuss its quality, and making a slight sound of annoyance when he noticed—apparently from memory—that one of the hundreds of pieces had been relocated. The gallery is organized by mythology. According to Lucas, the artworks displayed in the Childhood Gallery construct myths that allow children to understand their place in the world. The Works Gallery does the same with the idea of labor. There’s motherhood, romance, fantasy, play, sports, war, and more. Some artists, photographers and illustrators have their own spaces. “The audience creates the story, but there are things that come together,” Lucas said. In his view, these galleries are documentary in a way that might have delighted George Herriman and Roland Barthes: examples of how humans pass on the stories of their societies.
“What is illustration?” he continued. “You have to have a story, and that story is society’s myth. It’s not necessarily true. In fact, everyone knows it’s not true, but it is Emotional. It stuck. It becomes important for society to bring society together. Humans are a little dysfunctional. He raised his gaze. “You need something to make them work together.” “
