Orakel 1964

Ernst Wilhelm Nay made "Orakel" with paint, but the date of its creation is unknown. Nay makes a world of circles, and lines, all suspended in a dark ground. The color palette is limited to blues, yellows, greens, and whites, but within that, he gets a lot of play, with luminous underlayers, soft edges, and hard graphic marks. There's a really juicy splodge of off-white near the top that feels like it just landed there, but then the lines, the bars, the hard-edged circles feel really decisive. He knew what he was doing, but he let accidents happen, too. It’s a beautiful balance. The white circle at the bottom has this funny, cartoony eye in the middle, like a Cyclops staring back at you. I love that little touch of humor. Nay reminds me a little of Joan Miró, but with a German sensibility. Like Miró, he understood that art is an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time. Art is not about fixed meanings, but about embracing ambiguity, and seeing where it takes you.