As we get closer to the August 12th kick off Star Wars celebration V in Orlando Florida, more and more details about guests and events are pouring in. Todays big news is that a collection of "lost" Ralph McQuarrie art that hasn't been seen since the production of the original Star Wars Trilogy in the 1980's. This collection will be the center piece in an exhibit showcasing the master works of this celebrated Star Wars artist. It's actually quite an interesting story how the lost art was...lost in the first place. From the L.A. Times Hero Complex blog, is that little story...
In the months after the lavish, 400-page retrospective "The Art of Ralph McQuarrie" was published in 2007, the illustrator was dealing with a far more mundane life event as a repair team came to his house to deal with a failing furnace. Steve Sansweet, the Lucasfilm director of content management and head of fan relations, said the homeowner nuisance delivered a moment of archival serendipity.
"We thought that we had seen all of Ralph’s 'Star Wars' work here at Lucasfilm — literally hundreds of production paintings, matte paintings and sketches, all carefully photographed, inventoried and preserved," Sansweet said. "But because his home furnace needed to be repaired a few years ago, and a forgotten bookshelf unit had to be moved to let the repairman get at it, Ralph discovered an old box on a shelf that was filled with the treasures."
It was too late to put them in the art book, but now Lucasfilm has incorporated these "lost" pieces into a McQuarrie masterworks exhibit that will be staged at Celebration V in Orlando, Fla., in August. There will be reproductions of 100 pieces from McQuarrie's personal collection -- design work on characters, creatures, spacecraft, weapons and worlds. There are numerous thumbnail sketches and original pencil drawings, such as the one at the top, that were used in the making of the now iconic "Star Wars" production paintings, Christmas cards and other items.
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