Abstract artwork can oftentimes be confusing to look at. If you’re in the dark, that’s alright since even curators have had a tough time determining the correct orientation of art sometimes.
A piece of art was recently discovered to be hanging upside down for more than 75 years. The painting titled New York City I was created by Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian in 1941. The work was put on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1945.
Since 1980, the art piece has been hung in the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen art collection in Dusseldorf, Germany, but now experts believe that it has been displayed the wrong way for decades.
At an event for the artist’s anniversary exhibition, curator Susanne Meyer-Büser discussed the history of the artwork. The picture is made up of red, yellow, blue and black adhesive strips that crisis cross one another across the canvas.
Meyer-Büser stunned the audience by revealing that she’d come across a photo from Mondrian’s studio, taken a few days after his death in 1944. The artwork could be seen on the easel in a different orientation, with the denser stripes on the upper edge.
“The thickening of the grid should be at the top, like a dark sky,” Meyer-Büser said. “Once I pointed it out to the other curators, we realized it was very obvious. I am 100% certain the picture is the wrong way around.”
Despite this realization, the picture will remain upside down. “The adhesive tapes are already extremely loose and hanging by a thread,” Meyer-Büser said. “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.”