Ernst Wilhelm Nay
Untitled
1956
Watercolour on watercolour laid paper. 41 x 59.6 cm. Framed under glass. Signed and dated 'Nay 56' lower right in pencil. - Paper faintly browned and with narrow light-stain, fragments of old mounting to verso.
The hallucinating influences of Expressionism – still prevalent in the ‘Hekate’ pictures – step into the background in favour of a newly achieved clarity. Whilst monochrome surfaces and black geometric elements were combined with areas of colour in the works from 1948, the black line receeds completely into the background in this work from 1956. What remains of Nay’s inner dialogue with synthetic Cubism, in particular the works of Juan Gris, is the concentration of colour, which reaches its brilliant climax in the disc paintings.
Catalogue Raisonné
Claesges 56-057.1
Certificate
We would like to thank Magdalene Claesges and Brigitte Schlüter, Ernst Wilhelm Nay Stiftung, Cologne, for the information. The work is registered in the online catalogue raisonné.
Provenance
Acquired from the artist (1950s); thenceforth family property, Rhineland