San Antonio · Since 1954 · Texas' first museum of modern art

Born from the legacy of artist and collector Marion Koogler McNay, the McNay Art Museum brings together European and American art, works on paper, performing arts, glass and contemporary creation in a Spanish colonial-style residence.

The McNay Art Museum is named after Marion Koogler McNay, an artist, teacher and collector based in San Antonio. In the 1920s, she and her husband built a Spanish colonial-style residence surrounded by gardens. Its collection developed around modern European and American art. In 1950, she bequeathed the house, the works and a large part of her fortune in order to create a museum. The establishment opened to the public in 1954 and became the texas' first modern art museum. Since this founding core, the collections have exceeded twenty-two thousand works. They include paintings, sculptures and photographs from the 19th to the 21st century, medieval and Renaissance art, a a major collection of prints and drawings, the Tobin Collection of Theater Arts, glass art and New Mexico art. In 2008, the Stieren Center designed by Jean-Paul Viguier added contemporary galleries and exhibition spaces. The available selection reflects the strength of the modern French collection. Cézanne constructs the portrait of Henri Gasquet in colorful masses. Matisse makes the red blouse a decorative focus. Van Gogh crosses the fields with two silhouettes captured in the landscape. Gauguin represents himself alongside an idol, linking portrait, symbol and self-invention. The "McNay Art Museum" selection notably compares Portrait of Henri Gasquet - Cézanne and The Red Blouse - Henri Matisse. Its reading favors light.

The McNay transforms a collector's house into a modern museum: the intimacy of the residence remains perceptible in the heart of an institution of more than twenty-two thousand works.