Background
Ernst Wilhelm Nay was born on June 11, 1902 in Berlin, Germany, the son of a government counselor of the German Kaiserreich.
Ernst Wilhelm Nay was born on June 11, 1902 in Berlin, Germany, the son of a government counselor of the German Kaiserreich.
Ernst Wilhelm Nay studied under Karl Hofer at the Berlin Art Academy from 1925 until 1928.
In 1921, after obtaining the Abitur (high school diploma), Ernst began to paint. When he left the Akademie in 1928, he had already exhibited at the Galerie Nierendorf in Berlin and had the support of critics like Paul Westheim. He painted still lifes, portraits, and landscapes. In 1929 he joined the Association of Berlin Artists, thus making new contacts and increasing his chances of holding exhibitions. The following year, the Nationalgalerie bought one of his beach scenes.
In 1931 Nay was granted a nine-month scholarship for Villa Massimo in Rome, where he developed his own style, initially marked by abstract surrealist compositions and paintings of ornamental mythical animals. His trips to the Baltic Sea and his sojourns in Norway, where he met Munch, and his visits to the Lofoten island, defined the subjects of his artistic world. In 1937 he was affected by the exhibition ban imposed by the national-socialists. Two of his landscapes were shown in the exhibition Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art).
Ernst was enlisted in 1940 and spent most of his time as a cartographer in France, where the amateur sculptor Pierre Térouanne put his studio at Nay's disposal so that he could carry on working. Ernst Jünger visited him and bought his painting "Elk's Head." After 1945, Nay worked on various sets of works, ranging from the mythic-abstract "Paintings of Hecate", to the abstract "Scheibenbilder", to the ornamental reductionism of his later work. Nay took advantage of the international vogue for abstract painting as the world's aesthetic language.
In 1950 his first retrospective exhibition was held in Hanover. The acknowledgment of this artist in and outside Germany is confirmed by his participation in three editions of the "Documenta of Kassel." In 1948 Nay took part in the Venice Biennale and in 1956 he represented there the German Federal Republic. After the controversy triggered by his contribution to the 1964 "Documenta", the so-called "Eye Paintings", his artistic career ended. Nay died four years later at the age of 65.
Farbholzschnitt 1952-2
Oberon
Untitled
Blue Diaphan
Schwarze Kette Grün zu Rot
Diagonale
Untitled
Spiele des Menschen
Dominant-Blau
Scheiben
Untitled
Farblitho 1966 - 21 (NOR)
Farbspiele
Pastorale
Crescendo
Furioso
Von Goldfarben und Blau
Motion
Orakel
Mythe
Red in Red I
Siebdruck 1966 - 1 (NOR)
Rhythmic Composition
Hellblau im Licht
Weizengelb
Blue Flood
Untitled
Farbaquatinta 1965-7
The Dancers
Siebdruck 1967 (NOR)
Streifen, WZ 1221
Farblitho 1968 - 2 (NOR)
Farbholzschnitt 1952-4
Blaufeuer
Jota
Ernst Wilhelm Nay deftly adapted his Expressionist style to the climate of post-war abstraction, maintaining subtle and individual use of color while expressing energy with quick brushstrokes.
In 1932 Ernst married Helene 'Elly' Kirchner in Berlin but they divorced. In 1949 he married Elisabeth Kerschbaumer.
