Guggenheim, New York:

Gabriele Münter was at the forefront of modern art in early 20th-century Europe. Constantly experimenting, she revitalized landscape, still life, and portrait painting, transforming everyday subjects into bold, original works. Rather than imitating reality, she sought to “convey an essence,” offering an alternative to modernist movements that favored pure abstraction.

This exhibition highlights Münter’s lifelong commitment to subjects rooted in daily life and shaped by travel, place, and community. Over fifty paintings are presented across three Tower galleries, alongside nineteen photographs she captured during her extended stay in the United States between 1898 and 1900. Taken with a portable box camera, these early images reveal her sharp eye for composition and light. In 1908, following formative journeys around Europe and in Tunisia, Münter returned to Germany and began developing the vivid palette that became her signature. Her early canvases reflect a radical approach to color and form, especially amid Münter’s founding affiliation with the Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) and related modernist collectives. Her artistic style further evolved in Scandinavia during World War I (1914–18) and in response to the cultural shifts of the 1920s and ’30s in Europe. Viewed as a whole, her work reveals a life defined by curiosity—one rooted in local encounters yet profoundly informed by a belief in our shared humanity.