Oct 31, 2022 13:00:00

It turns out that master Mondrian's abstract painting was displayed upside down for more than 75 years

New York City I , a work by Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian , was created in 1941 and first exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 1945. However, it turned out that this work was displayed upside down in its first exhibition at MoMA, and has remained upside down for 77 years.

Mondrian-Bild hängt seit Jahrzehnten auf dem Kopf
https://www.monopol-magazin.de/mondrian-bild-haengt-seit-jahrzehnten-auf-dem-kopf

Mondrian hung upside-down for over 75 years – ARTnews.com
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/a-mondrian-work-was-found-to-have-been-hung-upside-down-for-over-75-years-1234644669/

The problematic 'New York City I' is below. This work was originally created by Mondrian in 1940 and was created using adhesive tape, and depicts the streets of New York as straight lines in red, blue, yellow, and black.

'New York City I' was first exhibited at MoMA in 1945, and since 1980 it has been part of the art collection of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was scheduled to be exhibited at the Piet Mondrian exhibition to be held at the 20th Century Museum in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, but Suzanne Mayer-Bueser, curator of the 20th Century Museum in North Rhine-Westphalia, said: He wondered, ``Is the orientation of the photographs in the catalog raisonné really the direction that Mondrian intended?''

As you can see in the photo above, there are five strips of red, yellow, blue, yellow, and black glued horizontally at the bottom of the piece. When Mayer-Bueser examined photographs taken in Mondrian's studio while he was working on his work, he discovered a photograph of New York City I in progress, with these five tapes on the canvas. It looks like it was attached to the top.

However, if you look at a photo from when it was first exhibited in 1945, you can see that the top and bottom parts have already been turned upside down. 'It may have been,' Mayer-Bueser said.

Also, since this piece was created using tape rather than paint, it is important to know in which order you apply the tape vertically and horizontally. Since the canvas was pasted in order from the part where the five tapes were pasted, Meyer-Bueser claims that the part where the five tapes were pasted is considered to be the top of the work.

The work was created nearly 80 years ago, and some parts of the adhesive tape on the top (actually the bottom) of the work are deteriorated and damaged. Although it has been displayed upside down for more than 75 years, Meyer-Bueser said that displaying it upside down now could actually accelerate its deterioration, and will continue to do so in the future. The artwork will be displayed upside down.

Meyer-Bueser commented, ``If you change the orientation of the work, there is a risk that it will be destroyed. However, there may be no right or wrong orientation.''