Vasari Art Codex

trending_up market schedule Dec 11, 2025 visibility 3 link 1 artist, 2 galleries

star wars painting auction record price 2728082

The original painting for the 1977 Star Wars movie poster, created by artist Tom Jung, sold for $3.9 million at Heritage Auctions, becoming the most expensive object associated with the Star Wars franchise to date. The acrylic and airbrush artwork served as the half-sheet poster for Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and features a triangular composition of characters like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader. The painting was consigned by Melissa, daughter of producer Gary Kurtz, and surpassed the previous record for movie poster art.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Nov 12, 2025 visibility 8 link 22 artists

A new hope: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art sets September 2026 opening date

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has announced its opening date of September 22, 2026, more than a decade after the project was first conceived by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson. The museum, which moved from San Francisco to Chicago before settling in Los Angeles's Exposition Park, has grown from a $700 million budget to a reported $1 billion and will house over 40,000 works across 100,000 square feet of exhibition space. The collection spans ancient artifacts, canonical artists like Frida Kahlo and John Singer Sargent, comic book legends such as Jack Kirby and Alison Bechdel, photography by Gordon Parks and Dorothea Lange, and the Lucas Archives of film memorabilia.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Dec 10, 2025 visibility 3 link 3 artists

star wars artwork auction heritage record tom jung 1234766125

A Star Wars painting by illustrator Tom Jung, used as the original half-sheet poster for *Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope* (1977), sold for $3.88 million at a Heritage Auctions sale of Hollywood memorabilia in Dallas. Consigned by the family of film producer Gary Kurtz, the work first appeared in national newspapers on May 13, 1977, and later became the film’s official promotional image. The sale broke the previous record for a Star Wars object, surpassing the $3.6 million paid for Darth Vader’s lightsaber prop.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 5

Imagining the Manosphere as a Kinder, Gentler Place

Two new art exhibitions are tackling the aesthetics and ideology of the online "manosphere," a network of communities promoting hypermasculinity and often misogyny. The shows, 'The Manosphere: A New Hope?' at the New Museum and 'Soft Boys' at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, use video, sculpture, and installation to dissect this digital subculture and its visual language.

newspaper New York Times Art open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 4 link 1 artist

George Lucas Announces New 'Star Wars' Project Tied to Skywalker Saga Coming Later This Year

George Lucas announced a new Star Wars exhibition titled "Star Wars in Motion" at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, set to open on September 22, 2026. The exhibition will feature vehicle designs, props, costumes, and illustrations from the first six films of the Skywalker Saga, including Luke Skywalker's landspeeder and General Grievous' wheel bike. It is part of the museum's inaugural lineup of over thirty installations curated by Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson, timed ahead of the franchise's 50th anniversary of A New Hope in 2027.

newspaper MovieWeb open_in_new Read original