Marion Koogler McNay’s Legacy presents the largest exhibition to date of items from McNay’s original 1950 bequest. The exhibition includes select artworks and objects from the items gifted to create the first modern art museum in Texas in 1954. Treasures on view from the collection include iconic paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and even watercolors by Marion Koogler McNay herself.
“This exhibition is the Museum’s first comprehensive celebration of our founder’s transformational gift to her beloved, adopted city and community,” said Richard Aste, McNay Director and CEO. “Marion’s bequest of 700 works of art made San Antonio a global destination for the best of the art of our times, and its impact on our diverse community continues more than seventy years later.”
Also on view are Native American blankets collected during McNay’s frequent travels to New Mexico, turquoise jewelry, retablos (devotional paintings) and santos (saints) reflecting her adoption of Catholicism later in life, historic photographs and furniture from the original home, and contemporary responses to the bequest by San Antonio artists Joshua Perez and Drew Morros.
Marion Koogler McNay’s Legacy is organized for the McNay Art Museum by René Paul Barilleaux, Head of Curatorial Affairs; Lauren Thompson, Assistant Curator; Liz Paris, Collections Manager; and Edward Hayes, Exhibitions Senior Manager/Registrar; with Isabel Servantez and Philana Li, Semmes Foundation Interns in Museum Studies.
