Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum in San Antonio

The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum was founded in 1950 and was the first modern art museum in Texas. The museum is named after Marion Koogler, an American painter and art teacher who had great wealth due to an inheritance left to her by her father, an oilman. She used her wealth and art collection to convert her home into a modern museum of art. Marion Koolger, who was an artist herself wanted the world to be able to view her works after her death, but over the years she collected a significant amount of artwork herself. The first painting that she purchased was by Diego Rivera. She later was able to accumulate paintings from world-famous artists Picasso, Chagall, and Matisse along with a number of southwestern artifacts. Her former home, now the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum is a 24-room Spanish Revival style mansion that is located on 23 acres of land. The Mediterranean mansion is surrounded by lush landscaping that includes Japanese-inspired gardens, ponds, broad lawns, and a myriad of fountains. Over the years, the museum expanded and began to showcase other artwork from 19th and 20th century American European Artists.

Some of the artwork that can be found in the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum are collections by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, Edward Hooper, and Diego Rivera. The galleries in the museum continue to expand and include Renaissance artwork as well as modernist work. The original museum collection was strong in 20th century European Art, Southwest folk art, French Post-impressionism and modern American watercolors. The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum has grown to be one of the finest and largest collections of contemporary art and sculpture in the southwestern portion of the United States. Over 14,000 different objects are on display and a recent addition of a gallery called the Stieren Center was added to the museum to display modern works from famous architect Jean-Paul Viguier.

One of the rare collections at the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum is the Tobin Collection of Theater Arts. The collection is composed of over 2,000 documents and other works that exhibit the history of the theatre. Visitors to the collection learn about the history of costume design and scenery. The theatre has a strong collection of literature pertaining to ballet and opera and many rare books detailing European and American Theatre are placed on display. For example, original stage sketches that were used in the seventeenth century can be found encased in the museum. A main museum library also has rare books, files, periodicals, videotapes and microfilms. The main museum library has an extensive collection of over thirty thousand books and documents. Visitors must make an appointment to study any works available in the main or Tobin library.

The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum is open to the public all week long from 10AM - 5PM. General admission fees are $8 for adults and $5 for students. Admission is completely free for children under the age of 12. The museum officials estimate that over 100,000 visitors come to the museum every year.