An important abstract work by Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) has been hanging upside down in the North Rhine-Westphalia Art Collection for decades, probably in the wrong orientation. This was revealed by the museum on Thursday during the press conference for the exhibition “Mondrian.Evolution”, on the occasion of the 150th birthday of the Dutch artist.
The “New York City 1” image, created in 1941 and composed of red, yellow and blue horizontal and vertical adhesive strips, has been in the inventory of the NRW State Gallery since 1980. In contrast to the almost identical “sister painting” a oil that was created simultaneously and hung at the Center Pompidou in Paris, the image of the adhesive strip was rotated 180 degrees shortly after Mondrian’s death in 1944, curator Susanne Meyer-Buser said.
“sits on his head”
The art historian has presented several indications for its hiring. In a photo taken shortly after Mondrian’s death in Mondrian’s studio, the image of the masking tape can be seen in a different orientation on the easel: the denser stripes are located on the upper edge and therefore flow exactly like the oil painting at Paris. The trend of the adhesive strips with dirty tear-off edges also confirmed the suspicion. “So you can say,” The New York City 1 painting from the art collection is upside down, “said Meyer-Büser.
The image was included in the catalog raisonné and therefore generally accepted. In any case, the art collection no longer wants to shoot the image of the tape. “We won’t,” Meyer-Büser said. After all, it has been upside down for more than 75 years and is made up of sensitive adhesive strips.
