Piet Mondrian painting hung upside-down for 75 years
A painting by the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside down in several museums for over 75 years. However, the art historian who noted the mistake has claimed that the painting could disintegrate if it were not to be adjusted to the correct position.
The painting, entitled ‘New York City I’, was finished in 1941 and details a lattice of red, blue, black and yellow tapes. It was first showcased at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1945 and was transferred to North Rhine-Westphalia in Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1980.
‘New York City I’ has, until this point, been hung so that the thicker lines of tape are at the bottom. However, curator Susanne Meyer-Buser began research on Mondrian for a new show earlier this year and discovered that it had been hung the wrong way around this entire time.
She said: “The thickening of the grid should be at the top, like a dark sky. Once I pointed it out to the other curators, we realised it was very obvious. I am 100% certain the picture is the wrong way around. Was it a mistake when someone removed the work from its box? Was someone being sloppy when the work was in transit? It’s impossible to say.”
A similar work of Mondrian’s, an oil painting entitled ‘New York City’, shows the thicker lines at the top of the work. Further evidence comes from a 1944 photograph of Mondrian’s studio, which shows the work on the easel in the correct position.
Meyer-Buser is keen to stress that the work should remain in its ‘incorrect’ position now so as to avoid damaging it. She added: “The adhesive tapes are already extremely loose and hanging by a thread. If you were to turn it upside down now, gravity would pull it in another direction. And it’s now part of the work’s story.”
