The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art (often referred to as the Blanton or the BMA) 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 22,000 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. In 2024, the Blanton was ranked by the Washington Post as one of the five best college art museums in the U.S., "thanks to its dynamic programs, commitment to research and public-facing engagement."

In 1927, American philanthropist and scholar Archer M. Huntington donated approximately 4,300 acres of land in Galveston County to the University of Texas at Austin for the use and benefit of a museum. Originally valued at $145,000, the gift became the Archer M. Huntington Museum Fund. Over the next century, the Huntington Fund would be used to acquire more than 1400 works of art, ranging from an early Corinthian round aryballos (oil bottle), created c. 600 B.C.E., to the 4-minute video Nuevo [New] by Russian artist Anton Vidokle, created in 2003 and acquired using the Fund in 2004.

The Huntington Fund also contributed $600,000 of the $1.5 million raised to construct the Art Building to house both the University's Art Department and the University Art Museum (later named the Archer M. Huntington Gallery), which opened its doors to the public in late 1963. In 1964, Donald Goodall became the museum's first director.

By 1972, a portion of the museum's collection was housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Center, including the collection of paintings donated by James Michener and his wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa, and the Battle Collection of Plaster Casts, reproductions of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. The print study room and temporary exhibition galleries remained at the Art Department. In 1979, Eric S. McCready became the museum's second director, and the museum was renamed the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery shortly thereafter.

In 1993, Jessie Otto Hite became the museum's third director. In 1994, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa gave $5 million for the construction of a new museum complex which would unite the University's various art collection in a single place. The campaign to build a new building began in 1997 with a $12 million gift from the Houston Endowment, Inc. in honor of its then-chairman, Jack S. Blanton. The museum was renamed the Blanton Museum of Art, with construction on the new building commencing in 2003.

The Swiss-based architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron was originally commissioned for the project, but resigned the commission in 1999 due to creative differences with the Board of Regents regarding adherence with the university's Campus Master Plan. Controversy ensued, and Lawrence Speck, disappointed in the series of events that led to Herzog & de Meuron's resignation, resigned as dean of the School of Architecture, although he remained a faculty member. The commission was ultimately given to the architectural firm Kallmann McKinnell & Wood.

The new gallery building, named the Mari and James A. Michener Gallery Building, opened to the public with a 24-hour marathon celebration in 2006. A second education and administration building (the Edgar A. Smith Building), totaling 56,000 square feet, opened in 2008. In 2009, Ned Rifkin was named to replace the retiring Jessie Otto Hite as director. In 2011, Simone Wicha was named director.

In January 2015, Ellsworth Kelly gifted to the Blanton Museum the design concept for a 2,715 square foot stone building with stained glass windows that he subsequently named Austin. The Blanton launched a $15 million campaign to realize the project, a number that eventually grew to $23 million. The building was opened to the public February 18, 2018.