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Ernst Wilhelm Nay

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Ernst Wilhelm Nay
Artist's Name: Ernst Wilhelm Nay
Preferred medium: painting
birth year: 1902
Nationality: DE
City: Cologne

Ernst Wilhelm Nay - Profile

Ernst Wilhelm Nay studied under Karl Hofer at the Berlin Art Academy from 1925 until 1928. His first sources of inspiration resulted from his preoccupation with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Henri Matisse as well as Caspar David Friedrich and Nicolas Poussin. Nay's still lifes, portraits and landscapes were widely acclaimed. In 1931 Nay received a nine-months' study bursary to the Villa Massimo in Rome, where he began to paint in the abstract Surrealist manner. On the recommendation of the Lübeck museum director, C.G. Heise, Nay was given a work grant financed by Edvard Munch, which enabled Nay to spend time in Norway and on the Lofoten Islands in 1937. The "Fischer- und Lofotenbilder" represented a first pinnacle of achievement. That same year, however, two of his works were shown in the notorious exhibition of "Degenerate Art" and Nay was forbidden to exhibit any longer. Conscripted into the German armed forces in 1940, Nay went with the infantry to France, where a French sculptor placed his studio at Nay's disposal. In the "Hekatebildern" (1945-48), featuring motifs from myth, legend and poetry, Nay worked through his war and postwar experiences. The "Fugale Bilder" (1949-51) proclaim new beginnings in a fiery palette and entwined forms. In 1950 the Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover mounted a first retrospective of Nay's work. The following year the artist moved to Cologne, where, with the "Rhythmischen Bildern" he took the final step towards entirely non-representational painting. In them he began to use colour purely as figurative values. From 1955 Nay's painted "Scheibenbilder", in which round colour surfaces organize subtle modulations of space and colour. These are developed further in 1963/64 in what are known as the "Augenbilder". A first one-man-show in America at the Kleeman Galleries, New York, in 1955, participation in the 1956 Venice Biennale and the Kassel documenta (1955, 1959 and 1964) are milestones marking Nay's breakthrough on the international art scene. Ernst Wilhelm Nay was awarded important prizes and is represented by work in nearly all major exhibitions of German art in Germany and abroad. (Ketterer Kunst)

important exhibitions from Ernst Wilhelm Nay

Exhibition Location City Country Date
Ernst Wilhelm Nay BILDER DER 1960ER JAHRE Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt DE 22.01.2009
Ernst Wilhelm Nay - Grafische Werke Museum Ludwig Köln DE 14.07.2007
Ernst Wilhelm Nay BILDER DER 1960ER JAHRE Haus am Waldsee Berlin DE 07.05.2009
Ernst Wilhelm Nay - Aquarelle und Gouachen 1937-1968 Pinakothek der Moderne München DE 07.05.2004
Der geteilte Himmel. Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin Berlin DE 11.11.2011
Le grand Geste! Museum Kunst Palast Düsseldorf DE 10.04.2010
Formexperimente - Druckgrafische Folgen des Informel Museum Folkwang Essen Essen DE 16.04.2011
Ernst Wilhelm Nay Malerei und Grafik Kunstverein Talstrasse Halle DE 07.11.2009
Die Kunst zu sammeln Museum Kunst Palast Düsseldorf DE 21.04.2007

WHAT'S ON - current exhibitions with Ernst Wilhelm Nay

artist's website


external Link to the website of the artist or his gallery/institution:
Ernst Wilhelm Nay

Galleries representing
Ernst Wilhelm Nay:

Aurel Scheibler, Office
Bernd Dürr GmbH
Fahnemann
Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath
Galerie Beyeler
Galerie Brockstedt
Galerie Ludorff
Galerie Maulberger
Galerie Meyer-Ellinger closed
Galerie Neher
Galerie Orangerie-Reinz
Galerie Schlichtenmaier - Grafenau
Galerie Schwarzer
Galerie Thomas
Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner

Collections representing
Ernst Wilhelm Nay

Deutsche Bank Collection
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig GfZK
Kunstmuseum Bayreuth
Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz
Landesmuseum Mainz
Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz
Museum Abteiberg
Museum Folkwang Essen
Museum Ludwig
Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern
Museum Würth
Saarland Museum
Sammlung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Sprengel Museum Hannover
Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg
Suermondt Ludwig Museum
Von der Heydt Museum
Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum