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Upside-down painting

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 or by a deliberate decision of the exhibitor.

Examples

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Vertical and horizontal strips in blue, red, yellow and black on a white background. The horizontal strips are closer on the bottom.
New York City as exhibited (🔝)
Vertical and horizontal strips in blue, red, yellow and black on a white background. The horizontal strips are closer on the top.
New York City in the intended orientation (🔝)
Green lines representing grass. A grey object on the top.
Long Grass With Butterflies, 1890
A full-body portrait of the king in an elaborate frame is displayed next to an antique chair.
The portrait of Philip V

When both orientations are valid

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Arcimboldo's The Cook reversed (🔝) and the right way up (🔝). See also The Fruit Basket and The Gardener.

Some works display rotational symmetry or are ambiguous figures that allow both orientations to be meaningful. Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted several works that are still lifes in one orientation and related portraits in the other.

See also

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  • Spolia (fragments of sculpture and architecture recycled in new buildings) may not be in the original orientation for ideological or pragmatical reasons. An example is the blocks in the shape of a Medusa head reused as column bases in the Basilica Cistern of Constantinople.
  • Pittura infamante, a genre depicting enemies hanging from their feet.
  • Aerial landscape art – Visual art depicting the appearance of a landscape as viewed from an aircraft or spacecraft
  • 🔝, a symbol to show the top side of an object.
  • Denny Dent, an artist who sometimes painted upside-down portraits on stage before turning the canvas right-side-up for the audience

References

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  1. ^ "Piet Mondrian artwork displayed upside down for 75 years". BBC News. October 28, 2022.
  2. ^ Hülsmeier, dpa, Dorothea (October 27, 2022). "Mondrian: Berühmtes Bild hängt seit Jahrzehnten falsch herum". Berliner Zeitung.
  3. ^ "Allemagne : le tableau "New York City 1" du peintre Piet Mondrian accroché à l'envers depuis 77 ans". Franceinfo. October 30, 2022.
  4. ^ "Seit Jahrzehnten: Mondrian-Bild hängt auf dem Kopf". www.zdf.de.
  5. ^ "Mondrian painting has been hanging upside down for 75 years". the Guardian. October 28, 2022.
  6. ^ "Piet Mondrian artwork New York City I hung upside down for 75 years". Sky News.
  7. ^ "Piet Mondrian's Painting Has Been Displayed Upside Down for 75 Years". Town & Country. October 28, 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Gómez Ruiz, Lara (2 November 2022). "Este cuadro está del revés: Mondrian, Matisse y otros artistas con obras que fueron mal colgadas". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 November 2022.
  9. ^ Robertson, Nan. "Modern Museum Is Startled by Matisse Picture" The New York Times, December 5, 1961
  10. ^ Gohr, Siegfried. "Georg Baselitz. Kunst als Akt des Schaffens und Zerstörens. In: Detlef Bluemler". Künstler – Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst. 18: 3ff.
  11. ^ Calvocoressi, Richard (1985). "A Source for the Inverted Imagery in Georg Baselitz's Painting". The Burlington Magazine. 127 (993): 894–899. JSTOR 882264.