Praise for the new $83.5 million museum comes from another museum director, Dana Friis-Hansen of the Austin Museum of Art. "The Blanton allows Austinites and visitors to enjoy an encyclopedic collection in a formal and dramatic setting," he says. "Their temporary exhibitions are backed by top-notch scholarship and fine catalogues, and range from little-known Italian masters to conceptual media and performance artists. It is a tremendous addition to Austin’s already rich art ecosystem."

Phase II, the 56,000-square-foot Edgar A. Smith Building (named for the Houston businessman and University of Texas alum who donated $4.5 million), is set to open this coming summer, with spaces for an auditorium, café, gift shop, classrooms and offices. Also coming in mid-2008 is the eagerly anticipated Larry and Mary Ann Faulkner Plaza, which will connect both Blanton buildings. (Larry Faulkner, the immediate past university president, championed the new museum and the Suida-Manning and Steinberg acquisitions.) The site’s 145,000-square-foot green space is being designed by California-based landscape architect Peter Walker, whose other prominent Texas project is Dallas’ Nasher Sculpture Center.

It’s a Saturday afternoon in mid-summer, and despite a huge deluge, the museum is packed. (Since the Michener Gallery Building opened, memberships to the museum have skyrocketed eightfold, from 1,200 to 9,600 households.) On this visit, drawings from Yale University Art Gallery and 19th-century masterworks from New York’s Dahesh Museum of Art present a panorama of art history on the main level, while the second floor showcases permanent treasures such as Simon Vouet’s canvas "Saint Cecilia," a circa-1626 jewel from the Suida-Manning Collection that holds court in the European painting galleries. In a nearby wing, the innovative America/Americas installation, culled from the Blanton’s dual-hemispheric holdings, boldly mounts North and South American greats side-by-side. Color Field painter Morris Louis and cult figure Alfred Jensen are placed with Uruguayan modern master Joaquín Torres-García, while sculptor George Sugarman’s jubilant, primary-hued, 19-piece 1966 wooden floor construction contrasts with Argentine kinetic artist Gyula Kosice’s motorized, bubbling, futuristic assemblages. Several galleries over, a WorkSpace show highlights Josefina Guilisasti’s canvases comparing the terrain of her native Chile with the landscape of Marfa, Texas. (WorkSpace, a series of contemporary exhibitions and residencies initiated by Carlozzi, has increased the museum’s profile as a nexus for contemporary international art.)

Deep in the heart of Texas, at the new Blanton, this art dialogue continues across centuries and continents, enlivened by a dose of contemporary and a measure of master prints, but with very few cowboys and Indians.

Catherine D. Anspon is an arts writer and contributor based in Houston.