New York City I, one of Mondrian’s last paintings, has been exhibited upside down since its creation. Now it is impossible to put it back in the right direction, otherwise it will get damaged.
A painting by Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian has hung upside down for 77 years, he reports The Guardian. The painting, titled New York City Ihowever, it will continue to hang like this, to avoid damaging it.
Made in 1941, New York City I consists of rolls of colored adhesive tape. This painting, one of the last of its author, was exhibited at the MoMA in New York between 1945 and 1980.
The work has since entered the collection of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is exhibited in the Kunstsammlung museum in Düsseldorf.
“It was obvious”
It was curator Susanne Meyer-Büser who spotted the mistake when preparing a new exhibition on the artist: “The dense part of the paint, which looks like a dark sky, should be positioned high up,” he said. Guardian.
“Once I pointed this out to the other Tories, we realized it was obvious,” he told the BBC. “It’s very likely this photo is hanging the wrong way.”
Trials
The editor cites several pieces of evidence to support his hypothesis. The blackboard New Yorkmade by Mondrian in 1942, and very similar to New York City Iit is in particular exhibited at the Center Pompidou in Paris with the thick part at the top.
Susanne Meyer-Büser also cites a photograph of Mondrian’s studio taken in 1944 a few days before her death. We see New York City I with the narrow lines placed at the top. However, it is now impossible to hang it right:
“The ribbons have loosened a lot and are only hanging by a thread,” explained Susanne Meyer-Büser at Guardian. “If we turned the painting upside down, gravity would tilt it in another direction. And now it’s part of its story.”
