2018 Bulletin

2018 BLANTON BULLETIN
2018 BLANTON BULLETIN
Bringing Austin to Austin
In February 2018, the Blanton opened Austin—Ellsworth Kelly's final and most monumental masterpiece—on the grounds of
the museum. Austin immediately became a destination for the community and visitors to the city, helping the Blanton reach
new attendance records, and become an iconic global arts destination.
Austin had a long gestation in the artist's mind before coming to the city for which it was ultimately named. The story of this
work of art began in the late 1940s, when Kelly went to Paris on the GI Bill and explored Romanesque and Gothic churches
and chapels. Many years later, in 1987, a patron in California asked Kelly to design a chapel for his vineyard, and Kelly
conceptualized the work extensively through drawings and plans, though the work never came to fruition then. The present
structure in Austin remains true to Kelly's original vision. Although inspired in part by religious iconography and architecture,
Kelly envisioned Austin as a work of art and space for contemplation.
Form Into Spirit: Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin
Scheduled to coincide with the opening of Austin, the Blanton presented the exhibition Form Into Spirit: Ellsworth Kelly’s
Austin (February 18–April 29, 2018), organized by the museum’s deputy director for curatorial affairs Carter E. Foster. Form
Into Spirit investigated Austin’s decades-long germination and conceptual origins, exploring four primary motifs featured in
the building—Spectrum, Black and White, Color Grid, and Totem—that the artist grappled with throughout his career.
In 2015, Kelly gifted the concept for Austin to the Blanton, and the museum then embarked on a two-year, in-depth
collaboration with the artist to adapt the work of art to its ultimate home. This involved the architects working through
different approaches to various design questions, and the Blanton sharing and evaluating these options with Kelly, who
ultimately made every aesthetic decision. He passed away just weeks after signing off on his final selections and the
groundbreaking for the building.
Austin is now a cornerstone of Kelly's remarkable legacy. The Blanton has been fortunate to receive substantial gifts of
Kelly's work since opening Austin, adding to the museum's holdings of the artist's work. A record of these gifts can be found
in the Acquisitions section of this bulletin.
Major funding for Form into Spirit: Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin was provided by the Ford Foundation.
Generous funding also was provided by Jeanne and Michael Klein and the Scurlock Foundation Exhibition Endowment, with additional gifts from Suzanne Deal Booth,
Heather James Fine Art, Jenny and Trey Laird, the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, Lora Reynolds and Quincy Lee, and donors who contributed to the 2017 Annual
Fund.
◂ Mayor of Austin Steve Adler, Blanton Director Simone J. Wicha, President of the Ellsworth Kelly
Foundation Jack Shear, and President of The University of Texas at Austin Gregory L. Fenves at the grand
opening of Austin by Ellsworth Kelly, Blanton Museum of Art, February 18, 2018.
6 —— Austin by Ellsworth Kelly Austin by Ellsworth Kelly —— 7