A main abstract work by the Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) has been hanging upside down in a German museum for decades, probably in the wrong direction. The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen announced this on Thursday at the press conference for the exhibition ‘Mondrian.Evolution’, which is being shown on the occasion of the 150th birthday of the Dutch artist.
The painting “New York City 1”, created in 1941 and consisting of horizontal and vertical red, yellow and blue adhesive strips, has been part of the inventory of the NRW State Gallery since 1980. Unlike the nearly identical “sister photo” in oil painted at the same time and hanging in the Center Pompidou in Paris, the tape photo was rotated 180 degrees shortly after Mondrian’s death in 1944, says curator Susanne Meyer-Buser.
Image may no longer be flipped
The art historian gave several clues to her assumption. A photo taken in Mondrian’s studio shortly after Mondrian’s death shows the tape image on the easel in a different direction: the denser stripes are at the top edge and thus run exactly like the oil painting in Paris. The course of the adhesive strips with their dirty tear-off edges also confirmed the suspicion. One can therefore say: “The painting New York City 1 from the art collection is turned upside down”, according to Meyer-Büser.
The photo was included in the catalog raisonné and thus generally accepted. In any case, the art collection does not want to reverse the band image. (SDA/chs)