Go inside Blanton Museum of Art’s ‘Austin’ installation at UT
Visitors can find works by renowned artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, who designed the Blanton Museum of Art’s monumental installation “Austin.”
It doesn’t overwhelm the senses like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Yet the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin is sizable. Three buildings embrace a new patio that is shaded by giant metal petals, where one is tempted to linger in the benevolent cool.
The art inside is cool, too. We picked 6 things you should not miss during your first visit to this petite palace of the arts.
1. Linger in Ellsworth Kelly’s chapel-like ‘Austin’
This groundbreaking work from the late artist Ellsworth Kelly feels like a brighter, more friendly version of the Rothko Chapel in Houston. The white barrel vaults recall the Greek islands. The colored glass produces a dance of light that follows the patterns of the sunlight — or lack of it — outside. In a city obsessed with “place-making,” this building-as-art is a definite place.
2. Surround yourself with giant works in the museum atrium
While the updated museum complex works hard to invite the guest inside, once there, two permanent pieces of art make an immediate statement in the main atrium. Teresita Fernández’s “Stacked Waters” wraps around the walls of the tall space, while Thomas Glassford’s sculpture “Siphonophora,” which echoes the shape of giant sea creatures, hangs overhead. While this room sometimes fills with chatty folks during social events, it can impress even the solo visitor.
3. Galleries devoted to visiting exhibits from all over the world
Downstairs, the visitor encounters an L-shaped gallery devoted to temporary exhibitions that is often divided into smaller galleries. Recently, it hosted room after room of prints for “The Floating World: Masterpieces of Edo Japan from the Worcester Art Museum.” Upcoming is “Native America: In Translation,” which looks at curious history and recent reclaiming of Indigenous culture as seen through the lens of cameras, once the exclusive domain of white observers. Upstairs, in a room devoted to recent art, one currently can brush one’s fingers over “Sky Dance Light” by Marie Watt.
4. Rich American, Latin American and Latino art collections
Among the Blanton’s strengths are American, Latin American and Latino art, as well as delicate drawing and prints. In fact, the museum owns one of the finest collections of Latin American art in the country. Other art, such as Luis Jiménez’s towering 1989 sculpture “Cruzando El Rio Bravo (Border Crossing),” comes from closer to home and is emotionally moving in a way that never grows old.
5. Luscious Old Masters right here in Austin
Acquired in 1999, the Suida-Manning Collection gave the Blanton something that experts predicted that the young university museum would never put its hand on: genuine Old Masters. In numbers. Heavy on painters from Genoa, the collection nevertheless vaulted the UT institution into hitherto unheralded status. Fragile prints and drawings complement the paintings and invite leisurely examination. Yet the paintings bear the potential, at times, to saturate the senses. In a good way.
6. Don’t forget the classy gift shop
Back in the west building, where you picked up your tickets, is one last treat: A museum gift shop unlike any other in Austin. Highly curated, it’s like a little museum in itself. You seek a rare gift for your cultured loved one, but you want to see and feel it before purchasing it, then head to the Blanton’s quiet market. Come spring 2025, it will be joined by a bistro from the Justine’s owners that will sprawl into that singular patio/courtyard.
Blanton Museum of Art. 200 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., blantonmuseum.org
