CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 2/20/2020

Behold Ellsworth Kelly's final masterpiece, 'Austin'

In February 2018, the Blanton Museum of Art opened Ellsworth Kelly's masterpiece—a 2,715 square-foot limestone "secular chapel" with 26-foot double-barrel-vaulted ceilings, granite floors, and stained-glass windows, designed to house a series of abstract paintings on marble and a soaring California redwood "Totem" sculpture—to the public. It was a project that the artist, who died in 2015 at the age of 92, had envisioned in 1986, and had overseen in every detail until his death, two months before construction began. Now, Radius Books has released a superb new monograph on the project, featuring double Swiss binding, several deluxe papers, a wealth or archival materials, new installation photography and texts by the Blanton's Simone J. Wicha and Carter E. Foster. "I hope visitors will experience 'Austin' as a place of calm and light," Kelley said. "Go there and rest your eyes, rest your mind."