Kelly Serene

ELLSWORTH KELLY’S AUSTIN, an artwork nearly three decades in the making, opened to the public this past February on the campus of the Blanton Museum of Art in the Texas city of the same name. The sculpture-cum-structure was originally conceived in 1986 for contemporary-art collector Douglas S. Cramer, but Kelly ultimately decided that he did not want to confine his piece to private land. In 2015, shortly before his death, Kelly donated the design to the Blanton and advised museum staff on every detail of his first and only architectural project. Austin has much the same spirit as Kelly’s familiar paintings featuring bold colors and abstracted shapes. Three ends of the cross-shaped building are pierced by an array of colored glass windows, which bathe the interior in a soft rainbow glow. Inspired by the Romanesque cathedrals in Paris, Austin has a spiritual aura, but is meant for quiet reflection—a place, in Kelly’s words, to “rest your eyes, rest your mind.”

Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas. COURTESY OF BLANTON MUSEUM OF ART, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN © ELLSWORTH KELLY FOUNDATION