NEW YORK—The work of German artist Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902-1968) is being presented by Mary Boone Gallery and Michael Werner Gallery. The collaborative effort, spread across three Manhattan gallery spaces, is the first major exhibition of Nay’s work in the United States since his death more than four decades ago.
Boone’s 24th Street location is showing a series of paintings from the 1950s and 60s, a period the gallery describes as the pinnacle of Nay’s artistic development. The color confident canvases, shown here, embrace Expressionism and abstraction.
Mary Boone Gallery is showing Nay’s works (paintings at 24th Street, drawings on Fifth Avenue) from Sept. 7 to Oct. 6, 2012. A selection of paintings is also on view at Michael Werner Gallery from Sept. 7 to Oct. 27, 2012.
All photos © Arts Observer
According to Mary Boone Gallery, Nay investigated “color as form in a series of works characterized by modulated, circular color planes covering large areas of the picture surface. These would develop into the “Eye Paintings” (“Augenbilder”) of 1963 and 1964, so named for their suggestive ocular forms.”
