Austin, Texas story
Ellsworth Kelly's Austin
Imagine a building designed not just to hold art, but to actually be the art itself. That is the magic of Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, a breathtaking chapel-like structure located on…
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Imagine a building designed not just to hold art, but to actually be the art itself. That is the magic of Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, a breathtaking chapel-like structure located on the Blanton Museum campus. Completed in early 2018, this 2,715-square-foot building is the culmination of Kelly’s seven-decade career and the only building he ever designed.
He gifted the concept to the museum in 2015, envisioning it as a site for joy and contemplation. Constructed from Spanish limestone, the building features spectacular mouth-blown Munich art glass windows that cast a rainbow of light across the interior. Inside, the quiet space holds a majestic eighteen-foot-tall reclaimed-redwood totem and fourteen black-and-white marble panels.
Keep an eye out for how the changing sunlight transforms the stone walls into a shifting canvas of color.
Updated June 2026