(Berlin 1902–1968 Cologne)
Einklang - Harmony, 1953, signed, dated Nay 53 and again signed, titled, dated on the stretcher Nay Einklang 1953, oil on canvas, the reverse dark painted, 100 x 120 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galerie Günther Francke, Munich (1953)
Private Collection, Germany

Literature:
Aurel Scheibler, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Werkverzeichnis der Ölgemälde, Cologne 1990, vol. 2 no. 670, colour ill.

Online catalogue raisonné:
Ernst Wilhelm Nay Nr. 670

“The image has got to have a figure. The figure is something that’s created, the created shape of the surface. Creating the figure lies within the artist’s freedom, but enjoying it lies within the freedom of the viewer.”
Nay 1954

The piece entitled Einklang [Harmony] from 1953 forms part of the Rhythmic Images phase within Ernst Wilhelm Nay’s output. Ernst Wilhelm Nay was born in 1902 and belongs to the generation of artists whose oeuvre developed from the representational art of the pre-war years into abstract art, via the outlawing of their art during the war. He skilfully turned his elaborately constructed theories of painting into a masterfully free placement of colours. For him, creative theory never represented shackles but rather a system to regulate and control the “making” of the image – “images are made from images” (Nay 1962).

In the early Lofoten and Hecate images, Ernst Wilhelm Nay was still working within the expressionist/surrealist field of painting in the forties and fifties, with figurative elements time and again being pushed into the background by the expression of pure colour. In 1951, Ernst Wilhelm Nay moved from rural Taunus to Cologne, then buzzing with the atmosphere of reconstruction and optimism, which led him to experience the ultimate liberation from all forms of figurative imagery.

From 1952, the compositional principle moved to the forefront of the series of Rhythmic Images, among which Einklang is numbered. The dynamic rhythm of this series expresses itself in smaller, individual coloured elementary shapes which are juxtaposed with one another and rhythmically surrounded by the structures composed of black lines. The primary colours of blue, yellow and red in the upper left third of the image represent the upbeat of Einklang. The oval red shapes dotted on the surface meet a cold green which is again combined with the two dark blue coloured shapes by the black dots. The association is underlined by the ongoing black lines. The gold ochre is the connecting element between the cold and warm colours and binds the individual colours and shapes to each other. The small white painted shapes positioned on the black surface briefly unsettle the composition, like a staccato note in a piece of music. The in-depth involvement with both traditional and progressive music leads to the improvisational element moving further and further into the background; the staggered arrangement of the surface relief is created by the strict composition.

“Der Gestaltwert der Farbe” [“The Figurative Value of Colour”], the title of Nay’s theoretical manifesto from 1955, plays a key role in his Rhythmic Images. The first dot of colour that Nay paints turns the surface into a base, and when a second is added, the illusory value of the colour becomes visible. In 1955, Nay wrote in his manifesto about his works from the start of the fifties: “Warmth and coldness are in a ratio of 3:2 to each other… the balance of the entire coloured surface develops through the colours intertwining with each other. A composition of colours is created.”

Provenance:
Galerie Günther Francke, Munich (1953)
Private Collection, Germany

Literature:
Aurel Scheibler, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Werkverzeichnis der Ölgemälde, Cologne 1990, vol. no. 670, colour ill.

Online catalogue raisonné:

www.ewnay.de/werkverzeichnis.html

“The image has got to have a figure. The figure is something that’s created, the created shape of the surface. Creating the figure lies within the artist’s freedom, but enjoying it lies within the freedom of the viewer.”
Nay 1954

The piece entitled Einklang [Harmony] from 1953 forms part of the Rhythmic Images phase within Ernst Wilhelm Nay’s output. Ernst Wilhelm Nay was born in 1902 and belongs to the generation of artists whose oeuvre developed from the representational art of the pre-war years into abstract art, via the outlawing of their art during the war. He skilfully turned his elaborately constructed theories of painting into a masterfully free placement of colours. For him, creative theory never represented shackles but rather a system to regulate and control the “making” of the image – “images are made from images” (Nay 1962).

In the early Lofoten and Hecate images, Ernst Wilhelm Nay was still working within the expressionist/surrealist field of painting in the forties and fifties, with figurative elements time and again being pushed into the background by the expression of pure colour. In 1951, Ernst Wilhelm Nay moved from rural Taunus to Cologne, then buzzing with the atmosphere of reconstruction and optimism, which led him to experience the ultimate liberation from all forms of figurative imagery.

From 1952, the compositional principle moved to the forefront of the series of Rhythmic Images, among which Einklang is numbered. The dynamic rhythm of this series expresses itself in smaller, individual coloured elementary shapes which are juxtaposed with one another and rhythmically surrounded by the structures composed of black lines. The primary colours of blue, yellow and red in the upper left third of the image represent the upbeat of Einklang. The oval red shapes dotted on the surface meet a cold green which is again combined with the two dark blue coloured shapes by the black dots. The association is underlined by the ongoing black lines. The gold ochre is the connecting element between the cold and warm colours and binds the individual colours and shapes to each other. The small white painted shapes positioned on the black surface briefly unsettle the composition, like a staccato note in a piece of music. The in-depth involvement with both traditional and progressive music leads to the improvisational element moving further and further into the background; the staggered arrangement of the surface relief is created by the strict composition.

“Der Gestaltwert der Farbe” [“The Figurative Value of Colour”], the title of Nay’s theoretical manifesto from 1955, plays a key role in his Rhythmic Images. The first dot of colour that Nay paints turns the surface into a base, and when a second is added, the illusory value of the colour becomes visible. In 1955, Nay wrote in his manifesto about his works from the start of the fifties: “Warmth and coldness are in a ratio of 3:2 to each other… the balance of the entire coloured surface develops through the colours intertwining with each other. A composition of colours is created.”