Highlights from the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin
09.06.2022
The Charge, Frederic Remington, 1906; this commissioned work for the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City is Remington's largest work; the moneyed crowd in the Grille Room had this scene as their backdrop
Farrah Fawcett, Andy Warhol, 1980; this icon of my childhood attended UT before going on to star in Charlie's Angels; I remember her death from cancer at 62 was overshadowed because she died the same day as Michael Jackson
Variations on a Rhythm - G, Raymond Jonson, 1931; in 1994, Mari Sabusawa, wife of James Michener, gave $5 million for construction of a new museum complex, the first dedicated space for the museum's permanent collection since its founding
Jerry Bywaters, Oil Field Girls, 1940; the Blanton's permanent collection of more than 18,000 works is recognized for its European paintings, prints and drawings, and modern and contemporary American and Latin American art
Romance, Thomas Hart Benton, 1931-32; gifted to the museum by the Micheners, I was pleasantly surprised to see the artist using African Americans as his featured models in this work at a time when African-American representation in American art was minimal
In January 2015, the artist Ellsworth Kelly gave the Blanton the design concept for a 2,715-sq ft stone building that he subsequently named Austin; admission to Austin is included with the $12 museum ticket
Still Life of Flowers in a Glass Vase, Bartolome Perez, ca. 1670s; flowers are often represented in paintings to remind the viewer of the ephemeral nature of beauty, wealth, and worldly pleasures; the glass vase adds to the sense of fragility
Saint Bernard, anonymous French, ca. 1470; this painting presents an unflattering but very realistic portrayal of an elderly man through the artist's meticulous depiction of wrinkles, veins, warts and graying hair
Jacob Asking for Laban, Francesco Castiglione, ca. 1660-1710; depictions of keenly observed animals were typical of Genoese paintings of this era; I was very impressed with his ability to accurately capture the facial expressions on the animals
A Love Supreme, Summer, Sedrick Huckaby, 2001-09; this monumental work is one of a series of 4 quilt paintings representing the 4 seasons and titled after the landmark 1965 album by John Coltrane
New York at Night, Max Weber, 1915; Weber was one of the first American artists to fully synthesize the principles of European modernism and adapt them to a specifically American subject matter
Head of a Young Man, Peter Paul Rubens, 1601-02; considered to be one of the pioneers of Baroque art, Rubens was highly sought after during his lifetime; this study is among his earliest oil sketches
Ellsworth Kelly's Austin reminded me of a more vibrant, colorful rendering of the Rothko Chapel in Houston; the Rothko's setting is more peaceful while Austin is set in the middle of the sprawling UT campus
Temptation Island, Emily Mae Smith, 2019; Smith's work often bridges art history and popular culture to explore gender politics and representation; with sly symbolism, Smith conjures the dangers and decadence of a reimagined Garden of Eden
The Golden Hour, Thomas Moran, 1875; founded in 1963, the Blanton is one of the largest university art museums in the country; in 2006, the museum expanded with the addition of the Mari and James A. Michener building
Indian Canoe, Albert Bierstadt, ca. 1886; a follower of German Romanticism, the artist uses the sun setting behind a lone Indian as a signal of the looming decline of Native Americans' traditional way of life
Titled Austin, honoring Ellsworth Kelly's tradition of naming works for the places for which they are destined, the structure is the only building the artist designed, and will be his most lasting legacy
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