Ernst Wilhelm Nay

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Overview

Untitled (CR 60-018), 1960

Aquarell
41,8 × 60,2 cm
Signed and dated
Provenance:
Collection Dr Ernst Hauswedell, Hamburg
Private collection, Northern Germany
Private collection, Bavaria
Literature:
Magdalena Claesges, Ernst Wilhelm Nay. Werkverzeichnis. Aquarelle - Gouachen - Zeichnungen, Bd. 3: 1954-1968, Berlin 2018, Nr. 60-018.
This watercolour, created in 1960, belongs to Ernst Wilhelm Nay's group of works entitled "Scheibenbilder" (1954-1962), whose main motif is circular areas of colour, which Nay described as "chromatic discs". There are no more references to figurative elements in the disc pictures.
Initially, Nay's "disc paintings" are characterised by firmly contoured, circular colour forms. These increasingly dissolve as the group of works develops. In the watercolour created in 1960, the artist designed the individual discs with blurred outlines and modulated colours. The colour becomes the central constructive design value through the condensation of the disc shapes and their partly approximate dissolution. The composition is dominated by orange and red tones, i.e. warm colours. They take up the largest area of the sheet and result in the glowing colourfulness of the watercolour. As a contrast, Nay uses a dark blue and thus a cool colour. Applied partly opaque and partly diluted, he dynamises the composition by arranging the blue on the diagonal of the sheet. Anette Brunner