Abstract painting by Piet Mondrian hung upside down for 77 years
A museum curator has discovered that a work by Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian has been hanging the wrong way up for 77 years
READING LEVEL: GREEN
A work by Dutch abstract* painter Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside down for 77 years, an art historian has discovered.
A new exhibition of the avant-garde* artist’s work went on display at the Kunstsammlung museum in Dusseldorf, Germany, on October 29 and one of the pieces on show is New York City 1, which was painted in 1941.
The painting, featuring intersecting red, yellow, black and blue sticky tapes, was first put on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, in 1945 but has hung at the Dusseldorf museum since 1980.
Museum curator* and art historian Susanne Meyer-Buser discovered it had been hanging the wrong way up for decades as she was preparing for the new exhibition.
“In a photo from 1944, I saw that the canvas was the other way around on an easel. It intrigued* me,” Ms Meyer-Buser told a German newspaper.
The way the picture is currently hung shows the multi-coloured lines thickening at the bottom, with more space between the lines at the top.
“The thickening of the grid should be at the top, like a dark sky,” said Ms Meyer-Buser told another online newspaper, The Guardian. “Once I pointed it out to the other curators, we realised it was very obvious. I am 100 per cent certain the picture is the wrong way around.”
As well as the 1944 photograph, taken just days after Mondrian died, there is other evidence that suggests the work is upside down. One of the painter’s similar works, an oil painting called New York City, is on display at a Paris museum and its lines thicken at the top.
Ms Meyer-Buser said the mistake could have been made because “the painting doesn’t have a signature”, possibly because Mondrian didn’t get to finish it.
Despite the evidence suggesting the work is being displayed the wrong way up, it will continue to hang this way because it is too fragile* to change now.
“The adhesive* tapes are already extremely loose and hanging by a thread,” Ms Meyer-Buser told The Guardian.
“If you were to turn it upside down now, gravity would pull it into another direction. And it’s now part of the work’s story.”
Mondrian, born in 1872, was a noted exponent* of the 1920s abstract art movement known as “De Stijl” and was one of the most influential* figures in modern art in the 20th century.
In 1940, he moved to New York where the skyscrapers and layout of the city inspired his horizontal lines. He died in New York in 1944.
His most famous artwork is Victory Boogie-Woogie, which is considered one of the most important artworks of the 20th century.
GLOSSARY
- abstract: art that doesn’t try to represent something real, but instead uses shapes, colours and textures to get its meaning across
- avant-garde: the use of new and experimental ideas and methods
- curator: person who oversees or manages a museum, art collection or exhibition
- intrigued: made someone interested or curious
- fragile: easily broken or damaged, not strong
- adhesive: sticky
- exponent: person who supports an idea, theory or way of doing something
- influential: having a lot of influence or power over someone or something
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QUICK QUIZ
- What nationality is Piet Mondrian?
- What type of art did he create?
- How long is has the Piet Mondrian artwork been hanging upside down?
- Which museum first displayed the artwork?
- Why does Susanne Meyer-Buser believe it is hanging upside down?
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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. It can’t be upside down!
Create a drawing or artwork that can be hung with any of its four sides as the top and still look great. In other words, it could never be upside down!
Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: Visual Arts
2. Extension
Do you think the artwork should be turned the right way up? Write a list of reasons for and against.
Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts
VCOP ACTIVITY
Seeing the world upside down
Can you believe that the famous painting has been hanging upside down for 77 years now! What do you think the artist would say about this? Surely it would also cause some discussion among art critics as to how we all interpret the abstract piece of art. So what can they do about it? They said they can’t flip the piece around the “right” way because it’s too fragile and the tape would fall off. Can you think of a solution so that people can enjoy the piece as it was meant to be viewed?
Well, I have an idea. In 1931 a Russian researcher created a pair of invertoscope goggles that flip your vision upside down when wearing them. What if museums made them available to patrons to allow them to view the abstract artwork as it is currently hung but also as it was supposed to be hung? Then patrons could discuss their different interpretations as they viewed the pieces, as well as how and why they would position them.
Where else would you like to use invertoscopes and why?
How difficult do you think it would be to wear them for a whole day?