The Blanton Museum Of Art

Your City Your Art Your Museum

As the primary art collection for the city of Austin, the Blanton Museum of Art is a major resource for the community. With more than 21,000 works in the collection, the Blanton showcases art from across the ages, from ancient Greek pottery to abstract expressionism. With a year-round schedule of traveling exhibitions, art lovers are sure to discover new and old favorites at the Blanton.

European Art Before 1900

The collection of European paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts before 1900 includes the Suida-Manning Collection of over 275 works, with paintings by Parmigianino, Paolo Veronese, Tiepolo, Rubens, Claude Lorrain, and Simon Vouet, along with many other European artists from the 15th through 18th centuries. The collection also includes works by lesser-known, but still historically significant, painters such as Daniele Crespi and Luca Cambiaso. While the Suida-Manning Collection predominantly showcases Italian and French artists, eighteenth-century English painting is represented by a group of portraits bequeathed by Jack G. Taylor, including George Romney’sLady Hamilton .

The Blanton owns a collection of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman vases, the earliest of which date to the sixth century BCE. Many came from the Castle Ashby Collection formed by the Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton, who funded numerous excavations at Vulci, an Etruscan town north of Rome, during the 1820s.

Blanton Museum Of Art

The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art 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 collection galleries, storage, administrative offices, classrooms, a print study room, an auditorium, shop, and cafe. The Blanton’s permanent collection consists of more than 21,000 works, with significant holdings of modern and contemporary art, Latin American art, Old Master paintings, and prints and drawings from Europe, the United States, and Latin America.

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Texit: A Conversation With Outgoing Blanton Museum Of Art Curator Veronica Roberts

Veronica Roberts. Image credit: Manny Alcalá

Last month, Veronica Roberts left her position as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, where she worked for nine years. On July 5, she began her new role as the director of the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. Recently, she spoke with me about her past at the Blanton and her future at the Cantor.

Jessica Fuentes : As someone who had never lived in Texas before, what drew you to the job at the Blanton?

Veronica Roberts : What drew me to the job was the combination of the Blanton being the citys museum and the university art museum. I thought that was really cool to be on the edge of a campus that is such a dynamic public university. And then to also be serving a city that seemed like it had a lot more potential and was growing. Back in 2013, Austin was a lot smaller actually, but even then I was surprised that it only had one major collecting art museum. It just felt like there was an opportunity to really make an impact here.

And then, when I met the team during the interview process, I said, This is an amazing team of really kind, generous, smart thinkers that Id love to work with. I remember also seeing two works of art, an Alice Neel painting and Byron Kims Synecdoche. And I thought, I could definitely work here if youve got Byron Kim and Alice Neel!

JF: What ideas did you have about Texas and the Texas art scene before you came here?

Blanton Museum Of Art Admission Prices

Adults: $12College Students : $5Youth : $5Active Military: Free from Armed Forces Day, May 21 to Labor Day, September 5, 2022.Members: FreeUT Faculty/Students/Staff : Free

Admission is always free on Thursday, generously provided by the Moody Family Free Day Endowment.

Entry to Ellsworth Kellys Austin is included with museum admission.

Check out the hours and admission info for Austins Blanton Museum of Art, featuring a renowned collection of more than 21,000 works, including Ellsworth Kellys Austin.

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The Julia Matthews Wilkinson Center For Prints And Drawings

The Julia Matthews Wilkinson Center for Prints and Drawings houses most of the Blanton’s 16,000 works on paper. The center also includes the H.E.B. print study room, a library, and curatorial offices. The center’s holdings reflect the Blanton’s fifty-year focus on three specific collecting areas: European art from 1450 to 1800, Latin American art after 1960, and American art of the 20th century.

The Wilkinson Center’s holdings include over 380 drawings from the Suida-Manning Collection, which are mostly pre-1800 Italian, including drawings by Raphael, Correggio, and Guercino. Also representing European art from this period is the Leo Steinberg Collection of almost 3,500 prints, including early impressions by Hendrick Goltzius, Claude Lorrain, and Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione. The center’s holdings in contemporary Latin American art feature several thousand works from eighteen Latin American countries and includes 230 works on paper from the Barbara Duncan Collection of Latin American Art. Prints and drawings by American artists since 1900 comprise about twenty-five percent of the Blanton’s holdings on paper. Julia and Stephen Wilkinson and their Still Water Foundation gave over 1030 prints, primarily wood engravings from the first half of the 20th century tied to the tradition of social realism. Among them are 757 prints by Clare Leighton, best known for her images of rural workers.

In Kwame Brathwaites Photography Black Is Beautiful

Empowerment has always been central to Brathwaites work. Born to Barbadian immigrants in 1938 in Brooklyn, the photographer, now 83, has amassed an enormous portfolio of photographs that put Black beauty front and center. He spent much of his career capturing iconic figures of the 20th century like Muhammad Ali, Miles Davis and Nelson Mandela, but he was just as inspired by the ordinary as the celebrity: young people hanging out behind the legendary Apollo Theater, kids lounging out of car windows, jazz musicians taking a smoke break on Randalls Island.

One of Brathwaites greatest accomplishments was catapulting the Black is Beautiful movement into the mainstream, where it has remained for decades despite the relative obscurity of its genesis: a fashion show put on by a 24-year-old Brathwaite called “Naturally 62,” according to the Financial Times. Along with his brother, Elombe Brath, Brathwaite founded Grandassa Models, a collective of Black women who defied the Eurocentric beauty standards embodied by the likes of Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton in favor of embracing their natural hair and African heritage. At “Naturally 62,” where models strutted the runway in large hoops and patterns that could be found in cities like Lagos and Nairobi, Black is Beautiful was the slogan.

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Blanton Museum Of Art Hours And Admission Prices

From works by Rembrandt and Picasso to modern Latin American sculpture to contemporary video art, you can find it at the Blanton Museum of Art. Austins art museum is located between the campus of The University of Texas and the Texas State Capitol. Boasting approximately 21,000 works that span continents, centuries, and cultures — including Austin, the iconic building designed by the renowned Ellsworth Kelly — the museum is must-see for visitors to the city. New temporary exhibitions are installed throughout the year.

The museum grounds are undergoing renovation until Spring 2023 but the museum is open. Visit blantonmuseum.org for details and to plan your visit to Austins art museum.

In ‘valley’ Suzanne Bocanegra Reimagines Judy Garlands Infamous Wardrobe Test

In 1967, Judy Garland was infamously cast and subsequently fired from the role of Helen Lawson in Valley of the Dolls, the film adaptation of the bestselling novel, which follows three women who spiral through pills and show business.

Author Jacqueline Susann had drawn upon Garlands real-life struggles with drugs and the entertainment industry for her novel. But audiences never got to see Garland, who was let go a few days into filming due to issues with drinking, according to actor Patty Duke. Only one piece of footage from Garlands time on the film survives: a wardrobe test, in which the actor putters around a bit nervously, making the occasional comment under her breath.

In her multichannel video installation, Valley, Bocanegra pays homage to Garlands wardrobe test by displaying eight women artists doing their own wardrobe tests with recreations of Garlands original Valley of the Dolls costumes. Bocanegra collaborated with staff at Philadelphias Fabric Workshop and Museum to recreate the costumes for each of the eight women in her piece: poet Anne Carson, dancer and choreographer Deborah Hay, artist Joan Jonas, actor and singer Alicia Hall Moran, activist Tanya Selvaratnam, actor Kate Valk, artist Carrie Mae Weems and ballet dancer Wendy Whelan.

I’ve lived in New York for almost 30 years now, but in many ways, personally and artistically, I never really left Texas, Bocanegra said. It means a lot to me to come back to UT and show my work.

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Blanton Museum Of Art Grounds Redesign

Snøhetta has created a comprehensive grounds redesign for The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin. The new grounds initiative will unify and revitalize the museum campus across approximately 200,000 square feet, including two buildings and Ellsworth Kellys Austin. The project creates a new cultural nexus where Austins civic center meets the University of Texas campus.

The museums landscape vision is defined by a series of new gardens and entry points that knit the grounds together with the streetscape and campus. From Congress Avenue, visitors will now approach the courtyard under a canopy of dramatic petal sculptures which offer a threshold from the busy streetscape while framing Kellys Austin beyond.

A series of architectural additions work together with public shade sculptures and a new landscape design to give the Blanton Museum of Art a bold new presence that reflects its artistic direction. The Blantons courtyard currently forms a gateway where Congress Avenue, the citys main north-south axis, meets the main pedestrian spine of the UT campus.

Ellsworth Kellys Austin holds a place of pride on the museums northern side, while the Texas State Capitol is directly visible to the south across Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard. Snøhettas design unifies the museum campus with the citys prominent avenue through a choreography of planting, geometry and art.

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Modern And Contemporary Art

The Blanton’s modern and contemporary art holdings comprise more than 4,000 objects. Novelist James Michener, and his wife, Mari Michener, began giving their collection of 20th-century American paintings to the Blanton in the 1960s. The gift spanned into the early 1990s and eventually totaled more than 300 works. The Micheners also gave acquisition funds to the museum, supporting the purchase of approximately 75 additional paintings.

The museum’s collection includes 20th-century artists such as Thomas Hart Benton, Alice Neel, and Brice Marden. The Blanton’s collection of contemporary art also includes works by El Anatsui, Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler, Natalie Frank, Nina Katchadourian, , Yayoi Kusama, Glenn Ligon, Donald Moffett, Susan Philipsz, and Tavares Strachan. In 2009, Stacked Waters, an installation by artist Teresita Fernández commissioned by Jeanne and Michael Klein, debuted in the Rapoport Atrium of the Blanton Museum. In 2014, the Blanton acquired an important group of drawings, prints, and a major painting by the African-American artist Charles White from Drs. Susan G. and Edmund W. Gordon.

Discover Something Unexpected At The Blanton Museum Of Art

With nearly 18000 works of art in its collection including Old Master paintings Latin American art Modern and Contemporary works and an extensive collection of prints and drawings the Blanton offers something for everyone.

Founded in 1963 the museum holds the largest public art collection in Central Texas and is Austins only collecting institution. In addition to its permanent collection which includes works by world-renowned artists the Blanton frequently hosts temporary and traveling exhibitions bringing diversity culture and innovation to the Austin art scene.

Engaging public programs are available year-round including monthly art and activities at the Blantons free Third Thursdays which feature live music in the galleries artist and curator-led lectures and tours and even yoga in the museums peaceful atrium. The Blanton also curates scholarly panels film screenings and experiential music programs including its acclaimed SoundSpace music series hailed by the Austin American-Statesman as the most successful new music event in the city.

Guided visits for K12 classes custom experiences for students from The University of Texas at Austin and surrounding institutions hands-on art making activities and summer family programs are just a few of the stimulating educational programs the Blanton offers for learners of all ages.

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The Blanton Museum Of Art

When is The Blanton Museum of Art open?

The Blanton Museum of Art is open:

• Sun – Sun 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM
• Wed – Sat 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Buy tickets in advance on Tripadvisor. If you book with Tripadvisor, you can cancel at least 24 hours before the start date of your tour for a full refund.

Do you need to book in advance to visit The Blanton Museum of Art?

We recommend booking The Blanton Museum of Art tours ahead of time to secure your spot. If you book with Tripadvisor, you can cancel up to 24 hours before your tour starts for a full refund. See all 5 The Blanton Museum of Art tours on Tripadvisor

What’s the best way to see The Blanton Museum of Art?

According to Tripadvisor travelers, these are the best ways to experience The Blanton Museum of Art: