Artist Carol Bove has unveiled a hidden Joan Miró mural as part of her new retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The 19-foot-long ceramic work, titled 'Alicia' (1965–67), was commissioned by Harry F. Guggenheim but has been concealed behind a false wall for over two decades because curators felt it clashed with other exhibitions. Bove integrated the masterpiece into her show by cutting a diamond-shaped aperture into the partition, allowing visitors a rare glimpse of the site-specific piece.
This intervention challenges traditional museum curation and the practice of hiding permanent architectural commissions to accommodate temporary shows. By including the Miró on her official exhibition checklist, Bove highlights the dialogue between her industrial steel sculptures and the modernist canon. The reveal also brings renewed attention to a piece of 'Guggenheim lore' that has remained largely inaccessible to the public since 2003.