The highlight of the exhibition, New York City 1 (1941), has been shown upside down ever since it was first exhibited in public, according to curator Susanne Meyer-Büser, who made the announcement at a press conference on the eve of Mondrian. According to the German publication Monopol on Thursday, Evolution is a Piet Mondrian exhibition at Germany’s Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen K20 museum.
The first indication that the painting, an adhesive tape replica of the similarly named New York, which hangs right-side up in Paris at the Centre Pompidou, was hung incorrectly, the curator explained at the press conference, came from a photograph of the artist’s studio taken in 1944, not long after his passing. In the image, New York City 1 is shown on an easel with vertical stripes of yellow, blue, and black.
Could it be that Mondrian really meant for the orientation to be represented in the image, the curator wondered? The artwork reportedly had its debut in 1945 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Meyer-Büser Again, the dense cluster of stripes was shown toward the bottom of the piece rather than the top. Was it accidental or a mistake, she questioned, adding that it may have been turned over when being unpacked at MoMA more than 75 years ago?
Meyer-Büser asserts that he has more evidence in addition to the image taken at Mondrian’s studio. She thinks the artist would have started from the top and painstakingly layered the tape strips over one another, weaving them together in a certain manner since doing so would have been considerably more challenging.
Another indication that Mondrian likely worked from top to bottom is the fact that the tape is sharply shredded and does not extend to the canvas’s edge at the top of the image.
Whatever happens, the piece will be on display at Mondrian. Evolution, which documents the stylistic evolution of Mondrian, as it has been since 1945, with messy ends up and a substantial grouping of horizontal tape at the bottom.
According to Monopol, Meyer-Büser said, “If I flip the piece around, I risk ruining it, and maybe there is no correct or wrong orientation at all?”
New York City 1 is not the only instance of a piece being allegedly exhibited incorrectly by the MoMA. The paper cut La Bateau was hanging upside down when a stockbroker called Genevieve Habert discovered it in 1961 when Henri Matisse’s artwork was on display at the museum. The error had gone unnoticed by the museum personnel, the 116,000 guests, or the artist’s son Pierre.
After many trips, Habert purchased a catalog and realized she was correct, only to have the museum employees laugh at her. When the New York Times covered the topsy-turvy cutout, she went to them.
Soon after the painting was published, MoMA curators reexamined it and finally rehung it in the right manner. Pierre Matisse told the Times that Mrs. Habert deserved a prize.