Megan Fontanella on Gabriele Münter

The Great Women Artists

Katy Hessel

Arts

4.8 • 944 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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) -- 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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to season 14 of the Great Woman Artist podcast. I'm so thrilled to be bringing you a fantastic series featuring conversations with artists, writers, curators and more. Just before I introduce our sponsor, I am very excited to let you know that I have written a new book. How to Live an Artful Life is out on the 6th of November
0:22.2	2025 and features a quote by an artist or writer for every day of the year. Think Tracy
0:28.6	Emin to Marino Abramovich, Zadie Smith to Ali Smith, Nan Golden to Hilton Al's, plus historical
0:34.5	writers and artists too. In the book, they offer us advice from how to slow down and pay
0:40.1	attention to daily routines and putting ideas into action. Each month takes on a different theme.
0:46.1	For example, January is about where do ideas come from? February is all about love and passion.
0:51.9	August is about beauty. November is about memory. December is about
0:55.7	joy. Because in a world where it seems that so many of us forget to look anymore, we can learn from
1:01.2	those who do. And to help the reader feel like they can apply the artist's word to their life,
1:06.6	I've written a short response to each entry to help guide and inspire you throughout the year.
1:11.9	And I've linked to where you can pre-order it from in the show notes.
1:14.8	And now for our sponsor, I am thrilled to say that this series is supported by the Levitt Collection,
1:20.7	a vast and varied art collection, which in the last eight years has become entirely focused
1:26.3	on works by women artists.
1:28.6	You can find much of this, made up of Impressionists, abstract expressionists, contemporary artists
1:33.7	and more, at FAM in Mujan, France, the first private museum in mainland Europe, devoted
1:40.0	entirely to female artists, spearheaded by Christian Levitt, who has published three research
1:46.0	books in this area. Recently, they launched The Levitt Letter, a monthly subscription-based letter,
1:52.3	advising collectors and dealers on the future trends in this specific art market.
1:57.5	Subscribers to the Levitt Letter also become members of the Levit Lounge, a community where
2:02.5	Christine shares his valuable insights and expertise, and gives subscribers direct access to visiting
2:08.4	Levitt's home in Florence and Mujan and the monthly webinar. Across all of these platforms,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Katy Hessel, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Katy Hessel and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.