Blue Diaphan 1965

Ernst Wilhelm Nay made "Blue Diaphan" with oil paint. Looking at it now, I can imagine Nay in his studio, brush in hand, making shapes that feel both random and inevitable. There’s a real push-and-pull here, a layering of translucent blues, greens, and yellows. It’s as though he’s conjuring forms, letting them emerge from the ground, and then partially obscuring them again. I bet the painting shifted a lot as he worked. The checkerboard shape in the upper left is intriguing – a bit like a jester’s hat that has fallen from the sky. It looks as though it might belong to another painting entirely. This feels like an artist thinking through the possibilities of his medium, testing out forms, and seeing what happens when they collide. The way the colors interact, how the brushstrokes create depth, it’s like a conversation between Nay and the canvas. The painting evokes other artists for me, maybe Joan Miró, with a shared love of playful, organic abstraction.