''Austin'' is an immersive work of art and architecture designed by artist

Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, c ...

and built on the grounds of the

Blanton Museum of Art The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S. with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent coll ...

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

, USA. The building is a permanent installation and part of the museum's permanent collection. In January 2015, Kelly gifted to the Blanton Museum the design concept for a stone building that he subsequently named ''Austin''. This work of art relates to the tradition of modernist artist-commissioned buildings that includes the

Rothko Chapel The Rothko Chapel is a wiktionary:nondenominational, non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas, founded by John de Ménil, John and Dominique de Menil. The interior serves not only as a chapel, but also as a major work of modern art: on its wal ...

, the

Thanks-Giving Square Thanks-Giving Square is a private park and public facility anchoring the Thanksgiving Commercial Center district of downtown Dallas, Texas, United States. Dedicated in 1976, the complex consists of three components: a landscaped garden and non-den ...

Chapel of Thanksgiving, and Henri Matisse's Matisse Chapel. Kelly said that the design of the building was inspired by Romanesque and

Byzantine art Byzantine art comprises the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome and lasted ...

he studied while in Paris on the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

. Following Kelly's gift, the Blanton launched a $15 million campaign to realize the project. The building was opened to the public February 18, 2018. A companion exhibition of Kelly's prints, sketches, and sculptures was displayed February 18 - April 29, 2018 at the Blanton to trace the evolution of four core motifs throughout his career; spectrum, black and white, color grid, and totem.

Construction and design

Ellsworth Kelly Austin under construction taken by Steven Saylor

The design-build team that realized the project was Overland Partners and Linbeck Group. The structure is clad with 1,569

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

panels from

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

, Spain. The interior stone flooring and plaza flooring is granite from

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, United States. The entry door is made from a native Texas

live oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are not more closely related to each other than they are to other oaks. ...

tree from the site of the

Dell Medical School The Dell Medical School is the graduate medical school of The University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. The school opened to the inaugural class of 50 students in the summer of 2016 as the newest of 18 colleges and schools on the UT Austin ...

. ''Austin'' has thirty-three mouth blown glass windows fabricated by Franz Mayer & Co. of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, Germany installed on three walls in "color grid", "starburst" and "tumbling squares" motifs. Austin Building Interior Tumbling Squares 2018

There are fourteen black and white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

panels on the interior walls of ''Austin'' that each measure 40" x 40". The black marble is from Belgium, and the white marble is from

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, west-northwest o ...

, Italy. Kelly experimented with a variety of composition for these simple panels, inspired by the

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The station ...

. There is also an 18 foot tall

totem A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While ''the wo ...

in ''Austins interior, which is salvaged

redwood Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affini ...

.Ellsworth Kelly's ''Austin'' FAQs
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References

External links

University and college chapels in the United States University of Texas at Austin campus University and college buildings completed in 2018 {{Texas-struct-stub