It was first displayed in New York’s Museum of Modern Art in
1945, but it’s been hanging in Dusseldorf since 1980. It’s repeatedly called a
painting, but it’s actually a white canvas with strips of adhesive tape in red,
yellow and royal blue. It seems a stretch of the imagination to call it a work
of art. It was constructed by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian in 1941; a bit of
neoplasticism called “New York City 1.” The colorful strips are irregularly
placed, some running horizontally and others vertically. There are slightly
more strips near the bottom than the top, giving the illusion of darkness below.
Recently, a curator discovered these horizontal strips belong at the top of the
canvas. New York City 1 has been hanging upside-down three-quarters of a
century. The gallery says it will continue to hang that way, as the glue backing
the adhesive strips is fragile. Flipping it right-side up would be its undoing.
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