What do Matisse, Mondrian, and I have in common?
I’m sure you’re thinking…nothing!
But we do!
And that is that we each have had a piece of our artwork hang upside down in a public venue without the owner or representative aware of it.
At least until they were notified about it.
Let’s begin with Matisse. In 1961, his painting Le Bateau was hung upside down at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It is a gouache painting and it stayed like that for 47 days.
It’s a painting of a boat with its reflection and is very minimal with some lines and two blue shapes.
You can read more about it at this link HERE.
Now, on to Piet Mondrian… he was a Dutch painter and his painting style was composed of squares and rectangles, very geometric and grid like.
He was a cubist and reduced all his paintings, even landscapes, down to simple lines and shapes.
Briefly, here is a synopsis of an article published on October 27, 2022 by Daniel Cassidy… his painting New York City 1 was displayed at an exhibition in Germany and the curator of the show determined that the painting had been displayed upside down for over 75 years.
She came to believe this from a photograph of Mondrian’s studio taken in 1944 which showed the painting how he intended for it to be seen. If you want to read the article, click HERE.
As for me…I was commissioned to create a large 17x6’ painting for the Ace Hotel in New Orleans to be hung above where the musicians play. I created two maquettes for the design team out of California and they chose one of them.
They sent me a photo of my painting superimposed on the wall it was to be hung on so we could see what it would look like. So, once it was installed, I took my kids to lunch at the Ace so we could all see it in place. We walked in and I immediately noticed it was upside down and we all had a great laugh about it.
To this day it is still displayed upside down, but Matisse and Mondrian eventually had theirs rehung to view in the right way.
Do I care that my painting is living upside down? Not at all, I think it’s a fun story.
