Tagged: Blanton Museum

The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a new exhibit — "Through the Eyes of Texas: Masterworks from Alumni Collections". The exhibit features almost 200 pieces of art from the private collections of UT alumni.

The exhibit features work that spans the globe and human history.

A trial is underway to determine who owns a Andy Warhol portrait of Farrah Fawcett: the late actress’s on-again, off-again companion, or the University of Texas.

UT and actor Ryan O’Neal face off in a Los Angeles courtroom today. When Fawcett died in 2009, she bequeathed her art collection to UT, her alma matter – including a silkscreened portrait of Fawcett made by famed pop-artist Andy Warhol in 1979.  UT reportedly hired a private investigator to track down the portrait.

Here’s a way to make your Friday workday more enjoyable: the Blanton Museum of Art has unveiled a new online database of the museum’s vast collection, containing records for over 17,000 works in the museum's collection. Almost all of the museum’s pieces have images on the database, and many feature historical information about the piece and the artist.  

It’s a dramatic upgrade from the previous Blanton database featured on the site, which only included images for some 150 pieces of art. 

New aspects of the database include an easy to use search feature, which allows users to search for works by keyword, artist name or nationality, period, or specific exhibition. It also features a portfolio of past exhibitions held by the museum, and more. 

A portrait of Farrah Fawcett painted by Andy Warhol and valued at $30 million was spotted on actor Ryan O’Neal’s new reality show on Sunday, and now the University of Texas wants it. Fawcett bequeathed it to the university in her last will and testament. According to Star Magazine, a celebrity gossip publication, UT hired a private investigator to track down the 1979 portrait.

The Blanton Museum said it had no comment on the missing portrait or any private investigation. However, a spokesperson said the museum already has one of the two originals, which is currently on display.

When O’Neal’s show debuted on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN Network this Sunday, the artwork was spotted on the wall of Fawcett’s former partner.

Statewide Power "Emergency" Means Rolling Power Outages in Austin

You may be wondering why your lights are out this morning.  Austin Energy is doing rotating cut offs.  The state’s power grid operator ERCOT is requiring this.  The state’s power grid couldn’t keep up with demand early this morning because some power plants went offline.  Austin Energy says the lights are expected to be out for about 45 minutes at a time in certain neighborhoods.