Kim Muir

Kim Muir is research conservator for paintings in the Art Institute’s Conservation and Science department. Since joining the museum in 2005, her work has focused on the technical study of 19th- and early 20th-century paintings. She has published widely on the painting techniques of Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, James McNeill Whistler, and Pablo Picasso, among others. In 2025 she received the College Art Association/American Institute for Conservation Award for Distinction in Scholarship and Conservation.

Sea Change: Uncovering Whistler’s Violet and Silver

A conservation treatment brings one of Whistler’s paintings much closer to the work the artist intended.

Kim Muir and Annelise K. Madsen
Cezanne’s Still Lifes under the Microscope

Conservation scientists share insights into the materials and techniques Cezanne used to create his complex and highly personal language.

Kim Muir, Giovanni Verri, Maria Kokkori, and Clara Granzotto
X-Rays: Peering over the Artist’s Shoulder

Conservators Allison Langley and Kim Muir share insights and secrets revealed by looking through the surfaces of four paintings.

Allison Langley and Kim Muir
Color, Chemistry, and Creativity in Monet’s Water Lilies

A research conservator and a conservation scientist offer an up-close look at the history and makeup of key pigments in one of Monet’s iconic paintings.

Kim Muir and Ken Sutherland

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