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The Blanton Museum of Art has completed and opened to the public Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, the only freestanding building designed by the artist, who was noted for his abstract paintings, prints, and sculptures. -
Kelly originally designed the building in 1986 as a private project for television producer Douglas S. Cramer (Wonder Woman, Dynasty, The Love Boat), who wanted the work for his California vineyard. Models were produced, but the building was never built. -
Kelly retained interest in the project, however, and in 2010, encouraged a Houston gallerist, Hiram Butler, to find him a patron to fund the work’s construction. In 2013, Butler approached the Blanton about the project, and the museum took it on. -
Director Simone Wicha and curator Veronica Roberts worked closely with Kelly for almost three years to realize the building as he envisioned it. Kelly donated the design of the work, which he titled Austin, to the Blanton in January 2015. In December 2015, Kelly died at the age of 92. The 2,715-square-foot structure was completed in 2018 at a cost of $23 million. -
Kelly was known for working with color and basic geometric shapes, and he incorporated these into Austin through three sets of stained-glass windows. This is the exterior view of the west facade and its “starburst” pattern. -
On the south facade, near the entrance, is a cornerstone engraved with the artist’s name and the year 2015. -
The exterior of Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin is covered with limestone panels from Alicante, Spain. -
The entry door is made from native Texas live oak taken from trees that originally stood on the site of what is now the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. -
The entry door is made from native Texas live oak taken from trees that originally stood on the site of what is now the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. -
Just inside the entrance of Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, which draws architectural inspiration from Romanesque chapels in France, where Kelly was stationed during World War II and lived for a few years after the war. -
Kelly was especially sensitive to the movement of the sun over the building and how the light would cast color into the space and move across the walls, floor, and artwork over the course of a day. -
Standing in the apse is an 18-foot-tall “totem,” part of a series of similar standing sculptures that Kelly made during his career. The sides of each totem have slight curves that correspond to the arc of a large imaginary circle – in this case, one with a radius of 3,079 inches. The sculpture is made of redwood logged in the 19th century and salvaged from a riverbed. -
From the east wing of the building, looking west toward the starburst window. -
The starburst window features 12 long glass rectangles arranged in a circle. -
The starburst window features 12 long glass rectangles arranged in a circle. -
From the west wing of the building, looking east toward the “tumbling squares” window. -
The “tumbling squares” window features 12 alternately angled glass squares arranged in a circle. Kelly took inspiration for it from the north transept rose window at Chartres Cathedral. -
The “tumbling squares” window features 12 alternately angled glass squares arranged in a circle. Kelly took inspiration for it from the north transept rose window at Chartres Cathedral. -
On the interior walls of the building are 14 marble panels showing black and white geomteric shapes in assorted configurations and compositions. Though inspired by the Stations of the Cross seen in Christian churches, the panel series in Austin is much more of an exploration of fundamental artistic relationships. -
The marble for the panels in Austin were sourced in Europe: the black marble came from Belgium,; the white marble came from Carrera, Italy – the very quarry where Michelangelo obtained marble for his sculptures. -
From the center of the building, looking south toward the “color grid” windows and the entrance. -
The color grid window above the entrance. All of the glass in Austin’s windows were mouthblown by by Franz Mayer of Munich, a renowned architectural glass studio founded in 1847.
Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin at the Blanton Museum
