''New York City'' (formerly known as ''New York City I'') is an oil-on-canvas painting by Piet Mondrian, completed in 1942. It is on display in the

Musée National d'Art Moderne The Musée National d'Art Moderne (; "National Museum of Modern Art") is the national museum for modern art of France. It is located in Paris and is housed in the Centre Pompidou in the 4th arrondissement of the city. In 2021 it ranked 10th in t ...

at the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, France. 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 The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the ''K20'' at Grabbeplatz, the ''K21'' in the ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

, Germany. In 2022, it was discovered that the artwork had been hanging upside down for years. To avoid damaging the painting, its orientation was not corrected.

''New York City I''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' states that the painting was first exhibited at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(MoMA) in New York City in 1945, while the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

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. 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. It was then briefly in the hands of Galerie Beyeler in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

, Switzerland, in 1980 before being acquired by

later that same year. Art historian Susanne Meyer-Büser announced in October 2022 that the artwork had been displayed upside down at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen for decades. 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. A picture of the painting in the artist's studio also showed the painting oriented with the denser lines at the top. It was conjectured that the lack of a signature on the canvas contributed to the confusion. Mondrian had not signed the work, possibly because it was unfinished. After the issue was pointed out, a number of curators stated that the error was obvious. The museum decided to keep the painting oriented upside down, due to the fragile state of the work. 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".

Notes

References

{{Piet Mondrian 1942 paintings Modern paintings Paintings by Piet Mondrian Rotation Paintings in the collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne fr:New York City (Mondrian)