(Barbara) Hazel Guggenheim King-Farlow McKinley
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Hazel Guggenheim King-Farlow McKinley (born Barbara Hazel Guggenheim; April 30, 1903 – June 10, 1995) was an American painter, art collector, and art benefactor.


Personal life

McKinley was born Barbara Hazel Guggenheim on April 30, 1903, in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to
Benjamin Guggenheim Benjamin Guggenheim (October 26, 1865 – April 15, 1912) was an American businessman, who was a wealthy member of the Guggenheim family. He was among the most prominent American passengers aboard and perished along with 1,495 others when the ...
and Fleurette (Seligman) Guggenheim. The marriage united two wealthy German-Jewish families, although their wealth did not protect them from anti-Semitism. Born into the well-known
Guggenheim family The Guggenheim family ( ) is an American-Jewish family known for making their fortune in the mining industry, in the early 20th century, especially in the United States and South America. After World War I, many family members withdrew from t ...
she grew up in New York, alongside her sisters Benita Guggenheim and Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim who would become the influential gallery proprietor, art collector, museum founder, and midwife to the
Abstract Expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...
art movement. Her father Benjamin gave up much of his financial interest in the family's mining business to start his own business in Paris. With his business failing, in 1912 he set out to return to the United States in time for McKinley's ninth birthday on the ''
Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British ocean liner that sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 as a result of striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers a ...
''. Following the shipwreck, he drowned aged 46; his body was not recovered. McKinley inherited $450,000. She later inherited money on the deaths of her mother, and of her older sister, Benita, who died in childbirth. The loss of her father haunted McKinley for the rest of her life, and in 1969 she recorded "In Memoriam, Titanic Lifeboat Blues." McKinley studied at
Washington Square College The New York University College of Arts and Science (CAS) is the primary liberal arts college of New York University (NYU). The school is located near Gould Plaza next to the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the Stern School of Bus ...
,
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
. In 1921, as an 18-year-old debutante, McKinley married banker Sigmund Marshall Kempner. She divorced Kempner a year later, and moved to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
where she married journalist Milton S. Waldman in 1923. They had two sons, Terrence and Benjamin. During a visit to New York in 1928, Terrence and Benjamin both fell to their deaths from the rooftop of an apartment block. Speculation about the details of this tragic incident was largely kept hidden from the public by the Guggenheim family. At the time, McKinley was visiting her cousin who lived in the penthouse apartment. The fall was believed to be accidental, although McKinley "was unable to tell a coherent story of what happened". Two police investigations came to the conclusion that the deaths were accidental. However, within their social circle it was thought that she pushed the boys off the roof due to her deteriorating marriage. Two years after the death of their sons, McKinley and Waldman divorced. The mystery surrounding her sons' deaths left McKinley permanently stigmatized. In 1931, McKinley married the Englishman Denys King-Farlow. They settled in
Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
, UK, and had two children, John King-Farlow, who became a philosopher and poet, and Barbara Benita King-Farlow, who became an artist in her own right. After McKinley and King-Farlow divorced, the children lived with McKinley in the United States, before a custody fight was won by their father, King-Farlow, and the children moved back to England. While her marriage to King-Farlow did not last, McKinley continued to use his last name when signing her paintings. McKinley next married Charles (Chuck) Everett McKinley Jr on August 13, 1940. He was an artist and USAAF pilot. Chuck McKinley died in 1942 in a plane crash in a farmer's field in Missouri during stormy weather while moving planes for military training purposes. McKinley used the last name McKinley on all of her subsequent work until the end of her life, but went on to marry at least three times more. On October 1, 1943, McKinley married Army Corporal Larry Leonard in Denver, a former actor and athletic instructor. The wedding was announced in newspapers across the country, and much was made of the fact that the bride was 40 and the groom a 28-year-old and that the bride was marrying down in rank, with previous husbands being a major and a lieutenant. Her next marriage was recorded by a certificate of marriage in the Commonwealth of Virginia where the Hazel G. McKinley, age 49, married F. Keith Cole, age 28, listed as a T.V. projectionist, on July 7, 1952. In later newspaper accounts, she was listed as Mrs. Hazel Hayes, but details of this marriage are unknown. In the late 1950s, McKinley moved back to Europe for a while, before returning to the United States in 1969. She lived in New Orleans until her death in 1995. On her death, her only living son, John King-Farlow, wrote a poem in his mother's honor, entitled "Eulogy For My Mother (Hazel Guggenheim McKinley, Artist)." Hazel died on June 10, 1995, and her two remaining children scattered her ashes on the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
. A short obituary distributed by the
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
noted she was a member of the illustrious New York Guggenheim family, that she was determined to make a name for herself as an artist, that her art works were shown in museums in the United States and Europe, and were in the collections of such celebrities as
Greer Garson Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson (29 September 1904 – 6 April 1996) was a British-American actress and singer. She was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer who became popular during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the homef ...
,
Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...
, and
Jason Robards Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he gained a reputation as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill. Robards received numerous accola ...
, and that she had died of cancer at the age of 92.


Painting and collecting career

McKinley began painting as a teenager and was a prolific artist throughout her life. When she fled New York for Paris at age 19 she studied at the Sorbonne and became part of 1920's bohemian Paris, where she was taught by key
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
artists of the time. Her primary mediums were ink, water color, tempera, and crayon. Whilst living in the south of England with Denys King-Farlow in the 1930s, McKinley was influenced by a group of avant-garde artists, and had her first solo exhibition in London in April 1937 at the Coolings Gallery. She received instruction from artists
Rowland Suddaby Rowland Suddaby (1912–1972) was a British artist and illustrator. Rowland Suddaby was born in Kimberworth, Yorkshire in 1912. Suddaby won a scholarship to Sheffield College of Art and studied there from 1926. Suddaby moved to London in 19 ...
,
Raymond Coxon Raymond James Coxon (18 August 1896 – 31 January 1997) was an English artist. He enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, the Royal College of Art, and became a teacher in the Richmond School of Art. The creative work of his long and successf ...
, and
Edna Ginesi Edna "Gin" Ginesi (15 February 1902 – 17 July 2000) was a British painter, specialising in landscapes and nature studies. Born in Leeds, she was a contemporary of the sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. She studied at the Royal Colleg ...
, becoming associated with
the London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...
and the
Euston Road School The Euston Road School is a term applied to a group of English painters, active either as staff or students at the School of Drawing and Painting in London between 1937 and 1939. The School opened in October 1937 at premises in Fitzroy Street, Lo ...
. She painted primarily in watercolor. Her work included still-life, portraits, townscapes and landscapes. Although her first work was done in a "slightly plain palette," her later work in the 1930s brightened, sometimes falling within the realm of
fauvism Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...
. "Under the influence of the Surrealists, Hazel's paintings after the 1930's became freer, though her work was far more whimsical and humorous than many artists more closely associated with the movement." In 1939 McKinley fled Europe due to the impending war and returned to the US, living mostly in California. She took brief art lessons from her sister Peggy's one-time husband
Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...
and much later attended several summer schools taught by muralist and renowned teacher
Xavier Gonzalez Xavier Gonzalez (1898–1993) was an American artist. He was born in Almeria, Spain.Richard MeGra"Confronting Modernity: Art and Society in Louisiana" University Press of Mississippi (2008), pp. 82–89. . He lived in Argentina and Mexico for so ...
. In her life in the United States and abroad, McKinley met many prominent artists of the Paris, London, and New York art scenes. She told a story about
Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...
, one of her sister's Peggy's art proteges, "Peggy once left Pollock with me at the Chelsea Hotel, saying she could not take him to lunch with her. Pollock was so drunk, he vomited all over the carpet. . . Years later, the manager asked if I didn't have a Pollock to sell. I told him to cut himself a piece of the carpet." McKinley continued to paint, and ran a small gallery of her own in the late 1950s and early 1960s in West Cornwall, Connecticut. One show at her gallery featured the works of British and Irish painters including
Rowland Suddaby Rowland Suddaby (1912–1972) was a British artist and illustrator. Rowland Suddaby was born in Kimberworth, Yorkshire in 1912. Suddaby won a scholarship to Sheffield College of Art and studied there from 1926. Suddaby moved to London in 19 ...
, Frank Beteson, Tom Nisbett, and Patrick Swift. McKinley showed two of her own works in the same exhibit, a watercolor painted at Positano, Italy and one painted at the Tuileries, Paris. Another featured work was a surrealistic water color portrait of McKinley by London artist
Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was a British writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...
. McKinley exhibited her work both in Europe and the United States throughout her long career, mostly at smaller venues. An incomplete listing of her exhibits and museum acquisitions of her work include:
Berkshire Museum The Berkshire Museum is a museum of art, natural history, and ancient civilization that is located in Pittsfield in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. History In 1903, local paper magnate Zenas Crane founded the Berkshire Museum. Inspired by suc ...
, the Galerie Raymond Duncan in Paris, Stendahl Galleries, the Jake Zeitlin Gallery, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, the Artists' Own Gallery in London, the Manchester City Art Gallery, and Santa Fe Art Museum. Her work was both admired, and dismissed, by contemporary critics. McKinley's work was only once included in a show by her sister Peggy. In 1943 McKinley was selected to exhibit a painting in Peggy's infamous show 31 Women''' in her New York gallery Art of This Century. The exhibition was radical at the time for being one of the first all-woman exhibitions, as well as showing only abstract or
Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
works. In 1998 after her death, one of her paintings was exhibited in Peggy Guggenheim's Venice home/museum the Palazzo Venier dei Leioni. While living in Europe in the 1960s, McKinley was mentioned in a
Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and c ...
column as she gathered American theater people to help Italian flood survivors and also donated paintings for the effort. In her later life she settled in
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, where she continued painting, exhibiting, and studying art into her eighties at
Newcomb College H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College was the coordinate women's college of Tulane University, located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1886 in memory of her daughter. Newcomb was the ...
, New Orleans. Towards the end of her life while confined to bed, her last works were colored pen drawings and sketches. McKinley collected major
contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...
artworks and she donated many of these works to public institutions. She donated over 15 works to
Wakefield Art Gallery Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolita ...
, UK, in the 1930s, and in 1938 presented the painting Cossacks (Cosaques) by
Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...
to the
Tate galleries Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
. This became an important work within the
Tate collection Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
. She also donated to the Tate works by artists Edna Ginesi and Raymond Coxon. She also donated many paintings, some her own, to museums across the UK, including to municipal collections of English cities including Wakefield, Manchester and Leeds.


Collections

Ferens Art Gallery Lakeland Arts Trust The Hepworth Wakefield Leeds Museums and Galleries Manchester Art Gallery Bristol Museum & Art Gallery


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKinley, Hazel Guggenheim 1903 births 1995 deaths Artists from New York City 20th-century American women artists American art collectors Guggenheim family