Galerie Koch Hannover | Galerie Koch

Born in Berlin

Participation in the evening act at the Berlin School of Arts and Crafts

Studies at the Hochschule für Bildenden Künste, Berlin, under Carl Hofer. Subsequent study trip to Paris

Awarded the State Prize (Rome Prize) of the Prussian Academy of Arts, Berlin, combined with a nine-month study visit to the German Academy (Villa Massimo) in Rome

Marriage to Helene (Elly) Kirchner. On his return journey from Rome, he meets the gallery owner Günther Franke in Munich, who from then on champions Nay's art

Acquaintance with Erich Meyer, Alfred Hentzen, Werner Haftmann and Ernst Gosebruch, who was dismissed as director of the Folkwang Museum in Essen by the National Socialists in 1933. Start of the "Dune and Fisherman Paintings" period (1934-1936)

Nay's work is defamed as "degenerate" by the National Socialists in Germany. 10 of his museum-owned works are confiscated and two of them are shown in the "Degenerate Art" exhibition. Carl Georg Heise, dismissed director of the museum in Lübeck, arranges financial support for Nay from Edvard Munch, which enables him to travel to Norway. Nay spends three months on the Lofoten Islands, where he paints large-format watercolours. The so-called "Lofoten pictures" were later created in the Berlin studio. Start of the work period of the "Lofoten pictures and pictures from 1939" (1937-1939)

In winter 1937/38 exhibition at the Holst Halvorsen Gallery in Oslo. There he presents the watercolours he created in the Lofoten Islands. Second trip to the Lofoten Islands, where he again paints watercolours. After his return to Berlin, he creates a series of four woodcuts as well as landscape and figure paintings

Stays with the collector Hanna Bekker vom Rath in Hofheim am Taunus. In Wiesbaden, acquaintance with Alexej von Jawlensky. Journey to Bulgaria, to the Black Sea, which Nay has to cancel due to the outbreak of war.

Nay was called up for military service and served as an infantryman, first in the south of France and then in Brittany (Auray). In his spare time, he paints small watercolours and draws. In order to protect his paintings in Berlin from destruction during the war, he sends most of them to an uncle in Muskau in Upper Lusatia while on leave in Berlin.

Through Hans Lühdorf, Nay becomes a cartographer for a staff in Le Mans. He met the amateur sculptor Pierre de Térouanne, who made his studio available to him and provided him with painting materials. He produced watercolours, drawings, small oil paintings and, for the first time, gouaches.

Destruction of Nay's studio in Berlin. Ernst Jünger visits him in Le Mans. Nay visits Kandinsky on a business trip to Paris.

After the war, Nay moves to Hofheim im Taunus, as his studio in Berlin has been destroyed, and moves into a studio house, which he obtains through the mediation of Hanna Bekker vom Rath. The "Hekate pictures" are created.

First post-war exhibition in the galleries Günther Franke, Munich, and Gerd Rosen, Berlin.

Beginning of the "Fugal Pictures".

First retrospective at the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover.

Move to Cologne.

Start of the "Rhythmic Pictures". Retrospective at Haus am Waldsee, Berlin.

Start of the "disc pictures".

Participation in documenta I in Kassel.

Solo exhibition in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Appointed member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin. Honoured with the Grand Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Participates in the exhibition "Hundred Years of German Painting" at the Tate Gallery, London.

Nay rents a studio in Paris. Represented in the exhibition "German Art of the 20th Century" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (further stop: 1958, St. Louis, City Art Museum).

Solo exhibition at the Kleemann Galleries, New York. Participation in documenta II in Kassel. Retrospective at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Honoured with the Guggenheim Prize, New York, German section. Retrospective at the Kunsthalle Basel. First solo exhibition in London, New London Gallery.

Retrospective on the occasion of his 60th birthday at the Museum Folkwang, Essen.

Start of the "eye pictures".

Creates the three "Documenta Pictures" (4 x 4 metres) for documenta III in Kassel. Solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, at the Kunstverein Münster and retrospective exhibitions at the Kunstvereine Hamburg and Karlsruhe.

Beginning of the "Late Paintings" period. Solo exhibition at the Frankfurter Kunstverein.

Retrospective at the Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, the Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim and the Museum of the 20th Century in Vienna.

Reunion with friends Uhlmann, Haftmann, Grohmann and others in Berlin. Last completed work: designs for the wall ceramics (3.30 x 9.36 m) of the Nuclear Research Centre in Karlsruhe. On 8 April, Nay dies of heart failure at his home in Cologne.

1937

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay - Bilder / Hermann Scheuernstuhl - Skulpturen und Zeichnungen", Ausstellungsraum Karl Buchholz, Berlin, Germany

1937

Galerie Holst Halvorsen, Oslo, Norway

1943

"E.W. Nay - Gouachen, Aquarelle und Zeichnungen", Galerie Günther Franke, München, Germany

1946

"E.W. Nay", Galerie Gerd Rosen, Berlin, Germany

1946

"E.W. Nay", Galerie Günther Franke (auch 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1957-1968 jährlich, 1970, 1973), München, Germany

1947

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay", Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

1949

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay - Fritz Winter: Abstrakte Malerei", Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany

1949

"Nay", Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath, Frankfurt a.M., Germany

1950

"E.W. Nay (Retrospektive)", Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany

1951

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay - Hans Uhlmann", Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg, Germany

1952

"E. W. Nay. Ölgemälde, Aquarelle und Graphiken", Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck u.a., Germany

1954

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay. Bilder, Gouachen, Aquarelle und Zeichnungen von 1927 bis 1954", Galerie Der Spiegel (auch 1957, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1967), Köln, Germany

1955

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay: Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen 1951-1955", Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany

1955

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay: Gemälde und Aquarelle", Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren, Germany

1955

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay", Kleemann Galleries (auch 1958, 1959), New York, USA

1960

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay", Galerie Günther Franke, München, Germany

1960

"Nay", New London Gallery, London, Great Britain

1961

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay", Galerie Der Spiegel, Köln, Germany

1962

"E.W.Nay. 60 Jahre (Retrospektive)", Folkwang Museum, Essen, Germany

1962

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay", M. Knoedler & Co (auch 1964, 1969), New York, USA

1966

"E.W. Nay (Retrospektive)", Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; Akad. der Künste, Berlin; Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany

1967

"E.W. Nay (Retrospektive)", Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Wien, Austria

1969

"E.W. Nay (Retrospektive)", Wallfraf-Richartz-Museum, Köln; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Städelsches Kunstinstitut, F.a.M., Germany

1969

"Nay. Aquarelle", Kunsthalle Bielefeld; Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken, Germany

1977

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay 1902- 68, Ölbilder", Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern; Städtische Galerie, Villingen-Schwenningen (weitere Station), Germany

1977

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay: Aquarelle und Gouachen", Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München; Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany

1980

"E. W. Nay 1902-1968 – Bilder und Dokumente", Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg; Haus der Kunst, München; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany

1985

"Bilder kommen aus Bildern. E. W. Nay 1902-68. Gemälde und unveröffentlichte Schriften aus vier Jahrzehnten", Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld; Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster; Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany

1990

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay: Retrospektive", Museum Ludwig Köln; Kunsthalle, Basel; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh,

1990

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay: Lofotenbilder", Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck, Germany

1994

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay. Die Hofheimer Jahre 1945-1951", Städtische Galerie im Städel, Frankfurt a.M.; Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Germany

1998

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay", Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden; Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg,

2000

"E. W. Nay. Aquarelle, Gouachen, Zeichnungen (Retrospektive)", Kunsthalle in Emden. Stiftung Henri und Eske Nannen; Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken, Germany

2002

"Nay – Variationen (Retrospektive zum 100. Geburtstag)", Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, München; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany

2004

"E. W. Nay. Aquarelle und Gouachen", Staatl. Graphische Slg. München; Museum Folkwang; Musée d‘ Art Moderne et Contemporain;, München; Essen; Straßburg,

2009

"E. W. Nay. Bilder der 1960er Jahre", Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt a.M.; Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany

2011

"E. W. Nay im Peill-Forum", Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren, Germany

2012

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay: Das polyphone Bild", Kunstmuseum Bonn (weitere Stationen), Bonn, Germany

2018

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay", Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

2019

"Ernst Wilhelm Nay: Arbeiten auf Papier", Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany

2022

"E.W. Nay: Retrospektive", Hamburger Kunsthalle; Museum Wiesbaden, Germany

Ernst Wilhelm Nay

Selected Works

Vita

Awards

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Group exhibitions (selection)

Collections