\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople, in the beginning, were saying, \u2018Why does it get dark?\u2019\u2005\u201d Lucas explains. \u201c\u2009\u2018The animals eat us at night\u2014why does that happen?\u2019 So they said, \u2018I\u2019ll tell you the story.\u2019\u2005\u201d<\/p>\n
The first gallery in the Lucas Museum, introducing its central concept, opens with a scale reproduction of the cave paintings in Altamira, Spain, from at least 14,000 years ago, photographed with an ultra-high-resolution camera and displayed, in close resolution, across the gallery walls.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of George\u2019s friends, Caleb Deschanel\u201d\u2014the well-known cinematographer\u2014\u201chas been helping, because the lighting is very important to how it\u2019s visually received by the viewers,\u201d Hobson says. \u201cGeorge said, \u2018I want you to look like you\u2019re looking out a window.\u2019\u2005\u201d From their window onto the Altamira paintings, viewers will progress to a reproduction of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. \u201cGeorge calls it \u2018God\u2019s comic book,\u2019 because the panels tell the story,\u201d Hobson says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Church and the State used illustration to create the myths that they wanted people to believe, because most people could not read,\u201d she continues. The Vatican granted Lucas\u2019s team special permission to photograph the chapel ceiling with the high-res cameras. \u201cEveryone can\u2019t go to the Vatican,\u201d she says. \u201cNot only that: When you\u2019re in the Sistine Chapel, the visuals are so far away. You can\u2019t see some of the detail of those stories. We bring them in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before long, they are wandering through the museum\u2019s more than 30 large galleries, most of which have been \u201cpaper-hung\u201d with scale printouts of the artwork so that Lucas can make changes to position and sequence. Hobson\u2014the keeper of the couple\u2019s schedule\u2014blazes ahead, clocking details quickly, eager to make it to their next engagement. Lucas goes through slowly and ruminatively, reinspecting almost every piece, pausing to discuss its qualities, making small noises of exasperation when he notices\u2014apparently from memory\u2014that one of the hundreds has been repositioned. The galleries are organized by myth. A Childhood gallery features artworks that, in Lucas\u2019s view, construct the myths that give children an understanding of their position in the world. A Work gallery does the same for the idea of labor. There\u2019s Motherhood, Romance, Fantasy, Play, Sport, War, and on. Some artists, photographers, and illustrators have their own spaces. \u201cThe audience creates the story, but there are certain things that you can put next to each other,\u201d Lucas says. In his view, which might please George Herriman and Roland Barthes alike, the galleries are documentary: examples of how humans have passed along the stories of their societies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is illustration?\u201d he goes on. \u201cYou have to have a story, and the story is the mythology of the society. It doesn\u2019t have to be true. In fact, everybody knows it\u2019s not true, but it\u2019s emotional.<\/em> It sticks. It becomes important to the society, to bind it together. Humans are a little bit dysfunctional.\u201d He lifts his gaze. \u201cYou need something to get them to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n