Ellsworth Kelly's Austin

Address 200 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd

Ellsworth Kelly's "Austin" is a small, white limestone building on the grounds of the Blanton Museum — the final work of one of the great American artists of the 20th century. The building has no function other than to be experienced: inside, 14 coloured glass panels set in shaped window openings flood the interior with coloured light that shifts through the day as the sun moves. The effect is meditative, even transcendent.

The building seats about 30 people on stone benches, and most visitors spend 10 to 20 minutes simply sitting with the changing light. The stone floor, the high ceiling, and the total absence of art objects (the coloured light is the art) make it unlike any other gallery or museum space. It is accessible on the same ticket as the Blanton Museum and is worth visiting specifically.

things to do museum architecture
A story
Ellsworth Kelly spent the last years of his life designing this building, working on it until just before his death in 2015 at age 92. The building was completed in 2018 and is considered his final and most complete work — a total artwork in which architecture, coloured glass, and stone form a unified whole. Kelly described it as a secular chapel.