It is a discovery that took 77 years. A painting by Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside-down all this time; discovered this week the officials of the Kunstsammlung museum in Düsseldorf (Germany) where it is currently on display. A major retrospective of the Dutch painter began on Saturday in this establishment, culminating in the presentation of the painting “New York City 1”, produced in 1941.
However, this painting is exposed upside down; revealed the museum this week. “In a photo from 1944, I saw that the canvas was the other way around on an easel. It intrigued me, ”said Saturday in an interview with the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung Susanne Meyer-Büser, curator of the exhibition.
The absence of a signature
The painting, made up of several red, yellow and blue lines crossing at right angles, was then exhibited at Moma in New York “a year later”, in the wrong direction, according to Susanne Meyer-Büser. When it was transferred to the Düsseldorf museum in 1980, the painting was rearranged in the same way.
The error could come from the fact that “the painting had no signature”, according to Susanne Meyer-Büser. Its meaning was therefore determined by “the name of the artist inscribed on the back of the frame by the administrator of the estate”, at the time of Mondrian’s death in 1944.
A grid inspired by the skyscrapers of New York
Piet Mondrian, born in 1872, is one of the main figures of the Dutch artistic movement called “De Stijl” (“The style”, in French), known for its horizontal and vertical lines and its primary colors.
In 1940, the painter left for the United States in New York. The rectilinear grids of his paintings are inspired by the layout and skyscrapers of the American city. He is known worldwide for his canvas “Victory Boogie Woogie”, considered one of the most important works of the 20th century.