When you think of a museum curator, you might not conjure up a sleuth traveling around the world to uncover the history of a treasured work of art or a social media director choosing the most compelling paintings from a well-known collection to slip into an Instagram slideshow.
But that’s what Megan Fontanella has been doing, among a lengthy list of responsibilities, as the curator of modern art and provenance at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. For the past 20 years, she has been behind some of the museum’s most popular late 19th- and 20th-century exhibitions, from a cozy look at Picasso’s early work to a tour of Vasily Kandinsky’s artistic evolution via a chronological display up the museum’s iconic spiral ramp.
She also helped organize such exhibitions as Away from the Easel: Jackson Pollock’s Mural, Robert Motherwell: Early Collages, and Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World. To produce these shows—and authenticate a painting’s origin story—takes more than meetings and deadlines and heavy lifting. Fontanella’s expertise in provenance has her flying to Europe to trace the history of a painting the Guggenheim plans to exhibit or confirm its chain of ownership through the decades. This process helps definitively link the artist to the work and its creation date while ensuring the piece is authentic.
She excels in unraveling a thread that might be hard to follow.
“I love being in a library, an archive, and looking at old letters,” says Fontanella, who lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Jayson Remmelts ’04, and 12-year-old twins. “When I can walk in someone else’s shoes, retrace their steps, and see the many ways their art has impacted people years after they produced the artwork, that’s very rewarding to me.”
Growing up in central Connecticut, Fontanella was surrounded by art. Her mother, who taught children with special needs, dabbled in oil and watercolor painting and called herself a “Sunday painter,” Fontanella recalls. “But I always have had these memories of her setting up her easel in the kitchen and painting. She continues to love painting with her grandchildren, so she is passing her creative impulse and talents on to the next generation.”
Fontanella’s interest in art history was a major reason she enrolled at Dartmouth, where she felt comfortable even before her first day. “When I got accepted, I went there to look at the campus. The sun was shining, folks were playing Frisbee on the Green, and it felt like such a special place,” she says. “It seemed like a school where someone could try on different hats to find out who they were, which resonated with me. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d be doing with an art history degree.”
Fontanella is particularly grateful to have studied 19th-century European art with Angela Rosenthal, who taught art history at the College until her death in 2010. “She was such a captivating professor, and she really made the material come to life,” Fontanella says. “She instilled in us a visual literacy that helped our critical thinking skills when we slowly and closely looked at art.”
When Fontanella secured a curating internship at the Hood Museum of Art, something clicked, thanks to then-director Derrick Cartwright. “He was so encouraging and open-minded and practical about what a job at a museum would look like,” she says. “Activating collections and bringing them to people felt like the right way forward for me.”
Hired at the Guggenheim to specialize in launching exhibits of 19th-century European art, Fontanella later returned to her Hood roots when she served on its board of advisors from 2019 to 2023. Dan Bernstein ’87, who chaired the museum’s board at the time, remembers the respect Fontanella commanded. “Her voice around the table was one that everybody would listen to very carefully,” he says. “Her perspective was coming from a place of a lot of expertise, from someone who has that curatorial experience.”
He especially appreciated Fontanella’s deep knowledge of how to track an artwork’s legacy. “When she discusses her work on showing the picture’s history and when you understand all of the investigating she does, it brings more depth to what you are looking at,” Bernstein says.
At the Guggenheim, Fontanella’s schedule brims with projects she leads beyond her New York City work and provenance research. In 2018 she organized the museum’s first European tour, Van Gogh to Picasso: The Thannhauser Legacy, and edited a comprehensive publication on the Thannhauser Collection, a selection of rare work owned by German art dealer Justin Thannhauser.
The Guggenheim also aims to share its treasures in places where art fans might not typically have access to them. Fontanella recalls how a 2023 tour of Kandinsky’s art in Australia was a surprising treat for abstract art enthusiasts. “In New York, we have more than 150 Kandinsky works,” she says. “In Australia, they had only one watercolor in a public collection. Museums are expanding beyond what can be viewed within their four walls.”
That fact also has encouraged Fontanella to work with the Guggenheim’s social media team to allow viewers a peek behind the curtain to understand how exhibits are displayed and prepared for launch. She might also share a few lessons on art conservation in a short Instagram reel.
“There are so many new entry points for people to engage with our collections,” she says. “I’m always thinking of ways to connect what I do as a curator with our wider audience.”
David Silverberg, who wrote the July/August 2025 cover story, “Modern Farmer,” lives in Toronto.
Want to learn more about Fontanella's art expertise? Listen to an interview with her about a painting by Gabriele Münter that went missing.
