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New York City I
New York City I
	New York City I (1941), upside down
Artist	Piet Mondrian
Year	1941
Medium	oil and painted paper strips on canvas
Dimensions	120 cm × 115.2 cm (47 in × 45.4 in)
Condition	upside down
Location	Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany

New York City
New York City
	New York City (1942)
Artist	Piet Mondrian
Year	1942
Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	119.3 cm × 114.2 cm (47.0 in × 45.0 in)
Location	Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, France
Website	www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/oeuvre/c5pRBL

New York City^[a] is a 1942 oil-on-canvas painting by Piet Mondrian, completed in 1942. It is on display in the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France.^[1]

An unfinished version of the work, titled New York City I, has strips of painted paper tape, which the artist could rearrange at will to experiment with different designs. It is exhibited at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf, Germany.^[2]^[b] In 2022, it was discovered that the artwork had been hanging upside down for years.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7] To avoid damaging the painting, its orientation was not corrected.^[8]^[9]^[10]

New York City I

The Guardian states that the painting was first exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City in 1945, while the Netherlands Institute for Art History has no record of an exhibition at MoMA, and states that it was first exhibited at the Valentine Gallery in New York City in 1946 for about three weeks.^[8]^[3] The painting was owned by the estate of Piet Mondrian in New York City until it was transferred to the city's Sidney Janis Gallery in 1958.^[3] It was then briefly in the hands of Galerie Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, in 1980 before being acquired by Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen later that same year.^[3]

Art historian Susanne Meyer-Büser announced in October 2022 that the artwork had been displayed upside down at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen for decades.^[8]^[c] The finished New York City has a denser group of lines at the top of the painting, which were said to represent the sky, while New York City I was displayed with those lines at the bottom.^[8] A picture of the painting in the artist's studio also showed the painting oriented with the denser lines at the top.^[4]^[8] It was conjectured that the lack of a signature on the canvas contributed to the confusion.^[8] Mondrian had not signed the work, possibly because it was unfinished.^[8]^[10]

After the issue was pointed out, a number of curators stated that the error was obvious.^[8] The museum decided to keep the painting oriented upside down, due to the fragile state of the work.^[8]^[10] It was feared that righting the artwork would cause parts of it to disintegrate, as the adhesive used had deteriorated and some of the tapes were "hanging by a thread".^[8]^[10]

Notes

^ Formerly known as New York City I,^[1] not to be confused with the unfinished version
^ The unfinished version is associated with the year 1941.^[2]^[3]
^ The Guardian states that the painting had been hanging upside down for 75 years at various institutions, since it was first displayed at MoMA in 1945.^[8]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Piet Mondrian - New York City 1942". Centre Pompidou. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Kunstsammlung NRW: Startseite". Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Piet Mondriaan". rkd.nl. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
^ ^a ^b Glynn, Paul (October 28, 2022). "Piet Mondrian artwork displayed upside down for 75 years". BBC News. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
^ Hülsmeier, Dorothea (October 27, 2022). "Mondrian: Berühmtes Bild hängt seit Jahrzehnten falsch herum". Berliner Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
^ "Allemagne : le tableau "New York City 1" du peintre Piet Mondrian accroché à l'envers depuis 77 ans". Franceinfo (in French). October 30, 2022. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
^ "Seit Jahrzehnten: Mondrian-Bild hängt auf dem Kopf". www.zdf.de. Archived from the original on March 30, 2023. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Oltermann, Philip (October 28, 2022). "Mondrian painting has been hanging upside down for 75 years". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 30, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
^ "Piet Mondrian artwork New York City I hung upside down for 75 years". Sky News. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Burack, Emily (October 28, 2022). "Piet Mondrian's Painting Has Been Displayed Upside Down for 75 Years". Town & Country. Archived from the original on October 31, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2022.