In 1942, Piet Mondrian marked a new stage in his artistic work with “New York City,” from which “New York City I” (a version of the painting made with adhesive tape) emerged. Since the first half of the 20th century, the work has been exhibited in various museums. However, no one noticed that the work was upside down until 2022, more than 75 years after its creation.
“New York City I” is part of the collection of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen museum in Düsseldorf, Germany. In late 2022, art historian Susanne Meyer-Büser announced a discovery that would forever change the way viewers perceive Mondrian’s work: the painting had been exhibited upside down for decades.
The work, conceived by Piet Mondrian in 1941, was first exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 1945. In 1980, it was moved to Düsseldorf, where it has remained since then, exhibited upside down once again by mistake.
How did they Realize it was Upside Down?
Meyer-Büser was the curator in charge of a new exhibition on Piet Mondrian at the beginning of 2022, a year in which several museums around the world began to fully reopen after the pandemic that started in 2020. After several years of observation and study, the art historian realized that the world had been looking at the painter’s work from the wrong side.
In its current orientation, ‘New York City I’ shows a thickening of multicolored lines at the bottom of the canvas. However, Meyer-Büser told The Guardian that “the thickening of the grid should be at the top, like a dark sky.”
“Once I informed other curators, we realized it was quite obvious. I am 100% sure that the painting is upside down.” However, turning it right-side up now poses a danger to the integrity of the work. Since it is a painting that has been in existence for more than seven decades, when Piet Mondrian used some tape to create the iconic grids of his work, changing its orientation could cause it to disintegrate.
Why was Piet Mondrian’s Work Upside Down?
‘New York City,’ a similar work done in oil paint, is exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris with the thickened grid at the top, that is, in the correct way. For Susanne Meyer-Büser, there is still no answer as to why ‘New York City I’ was exhibited upside down from the beginning. “Was it a mistake when someone removed the work from its box? Was someone being sloppy when the work was in transit?” the curator said. “It’s impossible to say.”