McNay Art Museum Puts 50 Artists Face to Face in New San Antonio Show

The McNay Art Museum is opening its galleries to more than two centuries of self-scrutiny, launching a two-part exhibition on September 3 that traces how artists have depicted themselves and one another since 1799. Titled “Two Faced: An Exhibition of Artists’ Portraits, in Two Parts,” the show draws entirely from the museum’s own holdings and represents 50 visual and performing artists, including Henri Matisse, Diego Rivera, Kathe Kollwitz, and Carrie Mae Weems.

According to CultureMap San Antonio, the exhibition’s first iteration runs September 3 through November 29 and offers double portraits, distorted likenesses, and images that reference other artists. The show is organized for the McNay by Dr. Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell, who was promoted to Head of Curatorial Affairs in February while continuing her role as Curator of Prints and Drawings, per the McNay Art Museum. Mitchell joined the museum as Curator of Prints and Drawings in March 2025 after previously holding curatorial roles at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center, the museum notes.

Because the show leans heavily on works on paper, which are light-sensitive and can’t stay on view indefinitely, the museum will swap out that portion of the exhibition midway through the run, per CultureMap San Antonio. A second iteration is scheduled from December 17 through March 14, 2027, and will shift focus toward representations of the artist at work, portraits with pets, and images where familiar objects stand in for the artist’s body, the outlet reports. The exhibition features printed, drawn, painted, and sculptural portraits and self-portraits, with tickets ranging from free to $23.

A Gauguin Masterwork Anchors the Show

Among the exhibition’s premier works is Paul Gauguin’s “Portrait of the Artist with the Idol,” an oil-on-canvas self-portrait created around 1893 while the artist was in French Polynesia, according to CultureMap San Antonio. The painting employs a Cloisonnist style that merges an introspective self-portrait with a green Oceanic idol figure, reflecting Gauguin’s exploration of personal identity and non-Western cultural symbolism, per Artchive.

The work has deep roots in the museum itself. It entered the McNay’s permanent collection in 1950 as part of founder Marion Koogler McNay’s original bequest, according to the San Antonio Express-News. McNay had acquired works by major post-impressionists to build her private collection inside her own San Antonio mansion, the paper reports, long before that collection became the seed of a public institution.

From a Private Mansion to Texas’s First Modern Art Museum

That founding gift was substantial by any measure. The McNay Art Museum opened in 1954 as the first modern art museum in Texas, built on Marion Koogler McNay’s bequest of her 24-room Spanish Colonial Revival mansion, 23 acres of land, and more than 700 works of art, according to the museum. What began as 700 objects has since grown into a permanent collection of more than 22,000 items spanning European and American paintings, prints, sculpture, and theatre arts, including the specialized Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts, the museum says.

The institution expanded its footprint considerably in 2008 with the addition of the 45,000-square-foot Jane and Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions, designed by French architect Jean-Paul Viguier, per the museum. That center, which includes dedicated gallery space, a sculpture garden, and a lecture hall, gives the McNay the room to mount large-scale temporary shows like “Two Faced” alongside its permanent holdings. Hoodline previously covered a de la Torre Brothers capitalism critique staged at the museum under current Director and CEO Matthew McLendon, who became the fourth director in the museum’s history in February 2023 after previously leading the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, according to the McNay.

Free Community Night Planned for September

Locals looking for a low-cost way into the exhibition have an option circled on the calendar. On September 10, the museum will host a free Second Thursday community evening featuring live music, food trucks, and a meet-and-greet with curators Elizabeth Mitchell and Mia Lopez focused on Part 1 of “Two Faced,” with gallery access running from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., according to the McNay Art Museum.

Free general admission for the monthly Second Thursday events is underwritten through corporate and philanthropic support from H-E-B and the John R. and Greli N. Less Charitable Trust, per the museum, with the outdoor and gallery programming continuing monthly from September through November. The museum notes that the event schedule remains subject to change due to weather or other concerns. The McNay Art Museum is located at 6000 N New Braunfels Ave in San Antonio.