Gabriele Münter: contours of a world

Exhibition at the Guggenheim, New York, 7 November 2025 – 26 April 2026

At the vanguard of modern art in early 20th-century Europe and constantly seeking to experiment, Gabriele Münter (1877–1952) revitalised landscape, still life and portrait painting, transforming everyday subjects into bold and original works. Rather than imitating reality, she sought to ‘convey an essence,’ offering an alternative to modernist movements that favoured pure abstraction.

This exhibition catalogue highlights the German artist's lifelong commitment to subjects rooted in everyday life and shaped by travel, place and community. It focuses on her painting practice from 1908 to 1920—early canvases, Blaue Reiter, and her stay in Scandinavia during the First World War—and highlights her lesser-known late works. Taken together, these works reveal a life marked by curiosity.

Featuring more than 90 paintings, drawings and photographs, this publication not only traces Münter's pioneering and little-known practice, but also challenges accepted historical narratives that tend to marginalise women artists. Reproductions of archival documents accompany a selection of the artist's sketches, prints and paintings on glass.