ERNST WILHELM NAY STIFTUNG

The painter Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902 – 1968) is one of the most well-known postwar German artists. His work can be found in nearly all important public and private collections devoted to the postwar period. The pictorial and graphic œuvre of Ernst Wilhelm Nay spans almost half a century, from the mid 1920s to 1968. We look at an extraordinary artistic development, one of constant transformation within the interstitial divide between abstraction and figuration, brought to an abrupt end by a sudden heart arrest 50 years ago in April 1968: Nay was 65 years old. Condemned as a ‘degenerate artist’ by Nazi officials in 1937, Nay was forbidden to show his work in Germany.