The Easel | Art journalism

30th September 2025

‘The Art of Manga’ Brings New Worlds to the de Young Museum

Janea Melido | KQED | 25th September 2025

Manga, once a uniquely Japanese black and white graphics product, is now global. The most famous manga is One Piece. Having appeared weekly for 28 years it is now a “cultural juggernaut”. Loosely, it’s a pirate adventure story that focuses not on raiding parties but on adventure and freedom. Other manga address crime, sports, history, sexuality, friendship, science fiction, martial arts and more. Says a curator “there is a manga for everybody” A review of a Netflix adaptation is here.

The Lucas Museum and the Question of Narrative Art

Leo Braudy | Los Angeles Review of Books | 17th September 2025

Important, maybe. Geoge Lucas is using his Star Wars fortune to build a Museum of Narrative Art. Narrative art is visual storytelling where the representation of physical movement conveys “elapsed time.” The Chauvet cave paintings, for example, imply the pursuit of animals. Bas-relief carvings show Egyptian pharaohs sallying forth in their chariots. And the Bayeux Tapestry justifies William the Conqueror’s invasion of England. The take-out seems to be that movies are narrative art par excellence.

Bayeux tapestry graphics Los Angeles narrative art USA

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