At the Guggenheim, a Dynamic Survey for an Expressionist Maestra

Iarrived at the Guggenheim for “Contours of a World,” the new show devoted to the late German artist Gabriele Münter, with what I thought was a deep appreciation of, and pretty solid familiarity with, her work. I was quickly proven wrong.

The first gallery I stepped into was full of black-and-white photographs; until then, I had only known Münter to paint. “She picked up a camera before she even picked up a brush,” says Guggenheim curator Megan Fontanella; the Guggenheim’s survey marks the first time her photographs have been exhibited in the United States.

“Contours of a World” also examines another overlooked force within Münter’s practice. Though she is closely associated with German Expressionism—even if her work was long overshadowed by her relationship with Wassily Kandinsky—in h