ACHIEVEMENTS

Attending the first United States exhibition of modern art in 1913, Marion recalled it as the most thrilling aesthetic experience of her life, changing the course of her life.  She had her first comprehensive view of the art of Cezanne, Picasso, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Degas, and Renoir, as well as works by some of the American Independents also exhibited.

A few years after the death of her beloved father, following a recent divorce, Marion suggested that she and her mother make a sentimental journey to San Antonio.  The old-world atmosphere inspired Marion to take up painting again; in her new surroundings her melancholia disappeared.  She made new friends, many involving the local art and literary circles.  One of interest was ophthalmologist Dr. Donald Taylor Atkinson, whom she married on May 18, 1926.  At this time, she began overseeing the building of Sunset Hills, a San Antonio mansion of architectural rarity and beauty, along with gardens of careful planning.  The house became her creative masterpiece, perfection she could never quite achieve in her painting.

Atlee B. and Robert M. Ayres designed the house, with every detail closely scrutinized by Marion.  The architects were frequently astonished and impressed by her abilities and general knowledge of technical problems.  The architectural style of house was loosely termed “Mediterranean”, a Spanish colonial design befitting San Antonio’s sub-tropical climate and rich history.

McNay designed and cut stencils for the many ceiling and archway facings, then applied them herself, not trusting this laborious work to any other.  She also became quite proficient in brick-laying and tile installation.

Her penchant for peacocks influenced both interior and exterior accents, from stencil motifs and a self-designed rug to large Talavera tile friezes made from her sketches.  The rose window of San Antonio’s Mission San Jose inspired a central pool in the elongated octagonal patio which the house surrounded.

For two memorable housewarming receptions attended by thousands in 1929, Marion even brought in Kansas bullfrogs from El Dorado, KS to croak happily from the patio pool as an orchestra played on the patio balcony.

McNay began her notable collection of modern art in the late 1920s with the purchase of Delfina Flores by Deigo Rivera.  Later discovering the artist community of Taos, New Mexico, she began to spend part of every summer there in the company of other artists and added to her rapidly growing art collection.  Here she also indulged in her fondness for colorful costumes and dramatic hats.

It was in New Mexico that she met Dalzell and Ruth Hatfield, art dealers who were to become close personal friends and a huge influence on her future art collection.  Upon the early purchase of two works of art, Ruth Hatfield recalled, “…when Marion purchased the Rousseau and the Gauguin, she already had vast knowledge of modern French and other nineteenth and twentieth century art. . . a more complete understanding of the living artists’ problems.”

During extended stays in Taos, she also developed deep friendships with the Pueblo Indians.  She often stayed in their pueblos, even joining in tribal dances, recording their way of life in watercolors.  Her Indian friends were welcome visitors to Sunset Hills.  Many works by Indian artists and craftsmen joined her growing collection.  When tribal lands were threatened by possible construction of dams in the middle Rio Grande, she pushed for formal protest to be filed against Congress, leading to a public hearing and defeat of the bill.

In 1946, Marion commissioned Charles Umlauf, a talented Texas sculptor, to execute a fourteen-foot aluminum crucifix on a black granite base to honor the grave of her priest, Father Basque.  She had previously aided the artist by paying for two stone castings of his Christ and the Children sculpture, accepted for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Artists for Victory Exhibition during World War II.  This exhibition, the artist’s first national showing, marked the beginning of a highly successful career.  Marion wrote a recommendation for him when he was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1949.

She purchased three smaller aluminum castings by Umlauf, similar to the commissioned Crucifixion.  Two of these remain in the McNay collection; the third was originally given to the Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital in El Dorado, Kansas.  Mrs. Allen had been a close friend of Marion’s mother.  Marion also equipped one of the operating rooms as a memorial to her father and commissioned Anthony De Young’s painting of Mrs. Allen presently hanging in the hospital.  Umlauf’s sculpture was later moved to St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Wichita, KS.

During World War II, Marion learned that the Witte Museum’s art school would be closed due to the war effort.  She offered the use of Sunset Hills to the school, eventually establishing her own art school in the former aviary behind the house.      

The San Antonio Art Institute opened in the fall of 1942.  She also provided living quarters for guest instructors and directors, as well as adding her private library for the school’s use.  She frequently substituted as a teacher and regularly lectured to classes.  Students received encouragement and critiques of their work; some were awarded prizes and scholarships to the Art Institute of Chicago.

When chronic illness caused her to live in relative seclusion, she began to make plans to leave her home to the city as a museum of Modern Art, starting with the conversion of her home into public building.  She conceived, planned and perpetuated for any possible contingency, her will covering the tiniest of details in assuring the preservation and continuation of the new center of art.  She left detailed instructions for how the endowment fund was to be used, as well as naming the first Board of Trustees.

Her bequest, the largest single gift in the city’s history, gave San Antonio opportunity for real cultural growth, extending to an ever-widening sphere of influence to become a national treasure.  Visitors, especially those from the great European art centers, continue to express amazement at such richness of modern French art in the state of Texas, often prejudged as being culturally barren.


AWARDS, RECOGNITION

Marion Koogler McNay is best remembered and honored by The McNay, the museum she began by her bequest to San Antonio.  It continues today as one of the finest collections in the nation, now including gothic and medieval works of art, the Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts, contemporary art and modern sculpture, a research library, and the 300-seat Leeper Auditorium. Traveling exhibits are featured throughout the year.


BIBLIOGRAPHY / FURTHER READING

Directory of the City of El Dorado, 1885; F. W. Jones, Fort Scott, KS, 1885

Lois Wood Burkhalter, Marion Koogler McNay, a Biography, 1883–1950; The McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, TX

A personal visit to The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; communication with the museum staff, CD-ROMs, video and other items and information provided by The McNay

Modern Art at the McNay, A Brief History and Pictorial Survey of the Collection; The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX

Adriel McGill and Carolyn McGill Hoelscher, Poems By Marion Koogler McNay; Crumrine Printers, San Antonio, TX, 1994

The Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital, El Dorado; private edition, Russell Fisher & Jessie P. Stratford, editors; The Times Publishing, El Dorado, KS; pp 17, 23

D.A.R. 1910 document, framed and hanging in Clymer Library, BCHS
www.askart.com
mcnayart.org
www.uthscsa.edu
www.elderhostel.org