Commentary: Fresh or infuriating? Lucas Museum of Narrative Art defiantly breaks the rules

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Set us as preferred Margaret Keane’s big-eyed children gaze unabashedly at a girl sketched by Pablo Picasso, and cartoonist Rose O’Neill rubs elbows with Vincent van Gogh.One of Mary Cassatt’s families lives around the block from Cassius Marcellus Coolidge’s poker-playing dogs, Alphonse Mucha’s “Spring” poses near an Al Hirschfeld sketch of Scarlett and Rhett, while a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo stares down a mannequin wearing the Batman costume from “The Dark Knight,” and iterations of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E.

Neuman appear in the most unexpected places.It would be easy to describe the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opens Sept.22, as “unconventional,” a description the museum’s leaders seem to favor, though “oppositional” also comes to mind.

A collection that eyes 20th century mass media illustrators and cartoonists with a reverence historically reserved for art’s masters could be considered (and not just for obvious reasons) the rise of the resistance.It certainly looks like no other museum on Earth.Architect Ma Yansong may have been inspired by the canopies of nearby plane trees, as he said in a recent preview tour, but the result is a 300,000-square-foot building that looks, as everyone knows by now, exactly like a spacecraft.

One of the friendly ones, of course, a decommissioned mothership perhaps, here on a diplomatic mission.Entertainment & Arts The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has riveted the public with its futuristic architecture.

But the lasting impact of George Lucas’ billion-dollar museum may lie in its landscape.Narratively, this makes perfect sense; George Lucas will always be best known for “Star Wars.” Architecturally too: In a town where the Getty’s hilltop compound can be reached only by tram; the Petersen Automotive Museum evokes speed with hundreds of...