Here’s one for the ages. San Francisco-based artist Robert Xavier Burden has spent 2,000 hours over the past two years to create this homage to Star Wars, an oil painting titled The 20th Century Space Opera.
In it, Burden’s included almost every character, including as this Wired profile points out, the loathsome Jar Jar Binks. “It’s hard to divert my eyes from his garden of galactic delights,” writes Wired‘s Angela Watercutter. “It’s like walking away from the destruction of Sodom—almost impossible not to keep looking back.”
The painting measures 15 feet by 8 feet, and while it’s priced at $200,000, Burden says that he would be surprised if anyone actually bought it.
“Most people aren’t going to buy that Star Wars painting,” he told Wired. “If that Star Wars painting was $5,000 most people wouldn’t buy it.”
Burden’s work often focuses on comic books and toys based on movies, and he has done pieces with Batman and Optimus Prime. In his artist bio, he says that he started the large-scale oil paintings “based upon the small action figures that I played with as a boy” and he continues to work with these as subject matter because they “renew my faded sense of awe.”
Ideally, Burden says he wants the painting to hang where fans can enjoy it. So, if you’re a Star Wars fan and have a lot of wall space to cover, this might be your lucky day.
