Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1482852
L egendary patron and museum maker Anne Marion's art collection went on the block in the spring of 2021 at Sotheby's, where its 18 stellar lots generated a jaw-dropping $157.2 million (including buyer's premium and fees). The late ranch-and-oil heiress' dynastic Four Sixes Ranch, founded 1870 — the largest Texas ranch in a single owner's hands — was sold earlier this year, generating headlines for its 266,255-plus acreage that sprawls across multiple counties in West Texas). The ranch reportedly sold to Yellowstone producer, director, writer, actor, and co-creator Taylor Sheridan and a group of investors for just shy of $200 million. (Spin-offs of Paramount's mega series are in the works, including one titled 6666, to be filmed at the ranch.) The vast land holdings may be gone, and Warhol's Elvis 2 Times and other iconic works by Roy Lichtenstein, Clyfford Still, Richard Diebenkorn, Kenneth Noland, and Morris Louis no longer line the walls of her I.M. Pei-designed house in Westover Hills, Fort Worth, which was commissioned by her mother, Anne Valliant Burnett Tandy. But Anne L. Marion, who passed away in February 2020 at the age of 81, lives on — and nowhere more indelibly than in the Texas art institution that she staunchly championed and steered, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. She inherited a commitment to the museum from her mother, then imprinted The Modern with her own vision, shepherding it into the 21st century with the selection of Tadao Ando, who would add to the state's tradition of museums designed by game- changing architects, especially Louis Kahn's Kimbell, and Renzo Piano's Menil Collection, both acknowledged to be masterpieces of the past 50 years. The Lady and the Legacy This Fort Worth fourth-generation maverick heiress couldn't have been more different in her collecting interests, family background, and demeanor from the understated European Dominique de Menil, heir to the Schlumberger fortune and co-founder of The Menil Collection in Houston. Yet, in her own way, Marion's disciplined eye, bold vision, and abundant philanthropy made as important a contribution in her lifetime to American museums as did Mrs. de Menil. Although on the board of trustees of the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, Marion played her greatest hand in her hometown vis-à-vis three institutions: the Kimbell Art Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and, reflecting her heritage, the Cowgirl Hall of Fame & Museum, where she was inducted in 2005. And, like the extraordinary Dominique de Menil, Marion went on to found a museum: the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, dedicated to a woman as strong and tenacious as herself, and one equally at home on the land. Marion lived a big American life against the broad panorama of the West. She was the great-granddaughter of a cattleman of Texas lore: Captain Samuel "Burk" Burnett (1849- 1922), who rode the Chisholm Trail and forged the beginning of the immense wealth that became the Burnett Foundation. Marion presided as president; to date, the foundation has gifted $600 million to charities supporting arts and humanities. Her largesse was made possible due to the Burnett Oil Company (where she served as chairman), built upon oil strikes in 1921 and 1969. Anne Marion's Munificent Legacy, Now on View at The Modern, Fort Worth Maverick Art By Wade Wilson and Catherine D. Anspon Portrait of a Collector (Continued) Anne Windfohr Marion, mid-1960s PORTRAIT COURTESY THE ESTATE OF MRS. JOHN L. MARION AND SOTHEBY'S; ARTWORK IMAGES COLLECTION THE MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH, GIFTS OF ANNE WINDFOHR MARION. 48