An Examination Leads to a Surprising Discovery

When it and four other works by Wassily Kandinsky in the Guggenheim Museum’s collection were sent to the Harvard Art Museums’ laboratory for examination in preparation for an exhibit, “Sketch I For Painting With White Border” (1913) revealed a secret. Underneath Kandinsky’s composition was another composition which had been painted by his lover Gabriele Munter. This discovery may turn out to be but one of many as the Guggenheim is in the process of examining its entire collection– something that will be much more easily facilitated when the Museum’s new conservation laboratory opens in 2012. (from The New York Times, October 23, 2011)