I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast today is the esteemed curator, Megan Fontanella.

A specialist in Modern Art and Provenance at the Guggenheim New York, Fontanella’s research interests focus on late 19th and early 20th European art and the avant-garde in the USA. She has organised a plethora of exhibitions for the Guggenheim across the globe, from Visionaries: Creating a Modern Guggenheim (2017); Kandinsky (2020–21); Kandinsky: Around the Circle (2021–22; 2023–24); Young Picasso in Paris (2023), as well as travelling collection exhibitions in Australia, Canada, and Europe.

But the reason why we are speaking to Fontanella today is because she is very excitingly curating a monumental exhibition by the German Expressionist, Gabriele Münter. Titled Contours of a World, the show – opening 7 November through to April 2026 – will feature 60 of the artist’s luminous, bold, sometimes rapidly-made paintings – from her portraits of friends to landscapes of the German alpine town of Murnau – that chart the changing face of modernism in art. Focusing on 1908 to 1920, it will deep-dive into her involvement with “The Blue Rider” – a group of visionary artists and writers who explored how colour and form could evoke emotion and spiritualist ideas – to the works she made during the First World War.

Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World is on view at Guggenheim New York, 7 Nov – 26 Apr 2026:

https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/gabriele-munter

Artists mentioned:

Gabriele Münter (1877–1962)

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944)

Marianne von Werefkin (1860–1938)

Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”) group

Artworks mentioned:

Gabriele Münter - Still Life on the Tram After Shopping (1909–1912)

Gabriele Münter - Portrait of Marianne Werefkin (1909)

Gabriele Münter - Boating (1910)

Gabriele Münter - Meditation (1917)

Gabriele Münter - Future (Woman in Stockholm) (1917)

Gabriele Münter - Portrait of Anna Roslund (1917)

Gabriele Münter - Lady in an Armchair, Writing (1929)

Gabriele Munter -  Breakfast of the Birds (1934)

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THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION:

https://www.famm.com/en/

https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037

Follow us:

Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel

Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic

Music by Ben Wetherfield