Most paintings are intended to be hung in a precise orientation, defining an upper part and a lower part. Some paintings are displayed upside down, sometimes by mistake since the image does not represent an easily recognizable oriented subject and lacks a

signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a ...

or by a deliberate decision of the exhibitor.

Examples

* An 1941 unfinished version of ''

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

'', a 1942 oil by Piet Mondrian, was hung upside down at 1945 at the MOMA of New York and since 1980 at the ''

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 ...

''. After discovering the mistake in 2022, its orientation was not corrected, to avoid damaging the painting. *, a paper-cut by

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...

, depicts a ship reflecting on the water. It hung upside down at MOMA for 47 days in 1961.Robertson, Nan. "Modern Museum Is Startled by Matisse Picture" ''The New York Times'', December 5, 1961
/ref> *

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Ame ...

's '' The Lawrence Tree'' (1929) depicts a tree from its foot. It hung up upside down in 1931 and between 1979 and 1989. Her '' Oriental Poppies'' hung upside down for 30 years at the

Weisman Art Museum The Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum is an art museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1934 as University Gallery, the museum was originally housed in an upper floor of the university's Northrop Auditorium. In 19 ...

of the University of Minnesota. Van Gogh - Wiese im Garten des Hospitals Saint-Paul

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

's '' Long Grass with Butterflies'' spent two weeks inverted at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

of London. *

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in ...

's ''Four Fishermen's Wives in Cadaquès'' was upside down at the

Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

of New York. *

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

's 1912 drawing ''The Fiddler'' was upside down at the

Reina Sofía Museum Reina (the Spanish word for queen) or La Reina may refer to: Geography * Reina, Badajoz, a municipality in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain * Reina, Estonia, a village in Saaremaa Parish, Saare County, Estonia * La Reina, a commune ...

of Madrid. The representations of the head and the fiddle were confused. Xàtiva

* Josep Amorós's portrait of

Philip V of Spain Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mon ...

hangs upside down at the , Spain. The king ordered the burning of

Xàtiva Xàtiva (, es, Játiva ) is a town in eastern Spain, in the province of Valencia, on the right (western) bank of the river Albaida and at the junction of the Valencia–Murcia and Valencia Albacete railways. It is located 25 km west ...

in 1701, during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

. * Georg Baselitz used a painting by

Louis-Ferdinand von Rayski Ferdinand von Rayski (1806–1890) was a German artist noted for portraits and landscapes. He is seen as the forerunner of Impressionism in Germany. Life Von Rayski was born on 23 October 1806 in Pegau in Saxony into an aristocratic Rayski vo ...

, ''Wermsdorf Woods'', as a model, in order to paint his first picture with an inverted motif: ''The Wood On Its Head'' (1969). By inverting his paintings, the artist is able to emphasize the organisation of colours and form and confront the viewer with the picture's surface rather than the personal content of the image. In this sense, the paintings are empty and not subject to interpretation. Instead, one can only look at them.

When both orientations are valid

Giuseppe Arcimboldo - The Cook - WGA00839

Some works display

rotational symmetry Rotational symmetry, also known as radial symmetry in geometry, is the property a shape has when it looks the same after some rotation by a partial turn. An object's degree of rotational symmetry is the number of distinct orientations in which i ...

or are ambiguous figures that allow both orientations to be meaningful.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo Giuseppe Arcimboldo (; also spelled ''Arcimboldi'') (1526 or 1527 – 11 July 1593) was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books. These wo ...

painted several works that are still lifes in one orientation and related portraits in the other.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{Cite news, url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63423811, title=Piet Mondrian artwork displayed upside down for 75 years, work=BBC News , date=October 28, 2022 {{Cite web, url=https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/piet-mondrian-beruehmtes-bild-new-york-city-1-haengt-seit-jahrzehnten-falsch-herum-li.281127, title=Mondrian: Berühmtes Bild hängt seit Jahrzehnten falsch herum, first=Dorothea, last=Hülsmeier, dpa, date=October 27, 2022, website=Berliner Zeitung {{Cite web, url=https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/arts-expos/peinture/allemagne-un-tableau-du-peintre-piet-mondrian-accroche-a-l-envers-depuis-77-ans_5448484.html, title=Allemagne : le tableau "New York City 1" du peintre Piet Mondrian accroché à l'envers depuis 77 ans, date=October 30, 2022, website=Franceinfo {{Cite web, url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/oct/28/mondrian-painting-has-been-hanging-upside-down-for-75-years, title=Mondrian painting has been hanging upside down for 75 years, date=October 28, 2022, website=the Guardian {{Cite web, url=https://news.sky.com/story/piet-mondrian-artwork-new-york-city-i-hung-upside-down-for-75-years-12732507, title=Piet Mondrian artwork New York City I hung upside down for 75 years, website=Sky News {{Cite web, url=https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a41803027/piet-mondrian-upside-down-painting-new-york-city-i/, title=Piet Mondrian's Painting Has Been Displayed Upside Down for 75 Years, date=October 28, 2022, website=Town & Country {{Cite web, url=https://www.zdf.de/uri/65c5b8fd-ffbf-4206-9fdf-cd5fe155974c, title=Seit Jahrzehnten: Mondrian-Bild hängt auf dem Kopf, website=www.zdf.de Rotation Painting Visual arts exhibitions

Examples

When both orientations are valid

See also

References