Ernst Wilhelm Nay Biography, Artworks
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NAY, Ernst Wilhelm (1902)
Born in Berlin. From 1925 to 1928 he studied at the Berlin Art Academy in the classes of Carl Hofer. Lived and worked for a time in Paris ( 1928) and Rome ( 1931-1932). One-man show in 1933 at the Galerie Flechtheim, Berlin. After 1936 he was forbidden by the Nazis to exhibit his work; it figured, however, at the; exhibition of "degenerate art" organized by the Nazis at Munich in 1937. All the pictures by Nay which had been acquired by German museums were confiscated by the government in 1938. He made a stay in Norway in 1937-1938 at the invitation of Edvard Munch. Called up in 1940 Nay served in the German army until 1945. Resumed painting immediately after the war and exhibited in 1946 at the Galerie Günther Franke, Munich. Took part in the Premio Lissone in Italy, 1953, and was awarded a gold medal. Awarded the Lichtwark Prize by the city of Hamburg in 1955. One-man shows at the Kleeman Gallery, New York ( 1955, 1958, 1959), and the Galerie Les Contemporains, Brussels ( 1958). His work has been represented at the major international exhibitions of recent years: São Paulo Bienal, 1955; Venice Biennale, 1956; German Art of the Twentieth Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1957; Documenta I and II, Kassel, 1955 and 1959. Large exhibitions of his work at the Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf ( 1959), and the Kunsthalle, Basel ( 1960, with Willi Baumeister). Nay is at present a member of the Zen group of artists.
Bibliography:
E. W. Nay, in Das Kunstwerk, No. 8-9, 1950. -- W. Grohmann , E.W. Nay, in Cahiers d'Art, No. 2, December 1952. -- E. W. Nay, Vom Gestaltwert der Farbe-Fläche, Zahl und Rhythmus, Munich 1955. -W. Hess, E.W. Nay, in Die Kunst und das Schöne Heim, April 1956. -- W. Grohmann, Catalogue Preface, Nay Exhibition, Galerie Les Contemporains, Brussels 1958. -- A. Rüdlinger, Catalogue Preface, Nay and Baumeister Exhibition, Kunsthalle, Basel 1960.
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