Untitled 1954

This untitled piece by Ernst Wilhelm Nay is just a wild party of color, right? The colors feel so intuitive, like they just plopped down on the canvas without a second thought. It's like watching a jazz improvisation, each shape and color riffing off the others. Looking closer, you see how the paint itself is laid down – loose, almost watery in places, but then thick and juicy in others. That navy blob has all the weight in the world. And those stripes, polka-dotted and playful, feel almost like a nod to Joan Miró. I love that these shapes don't try to "be" anything, they just exist in their own right. For me, this piece is all about the sheer joy of painting and the endless possibilities when you let go and let the colors lead the way. You could put this next to a Kandinsky, maybe one of his more geometric paintings. Both artists were looking for something beyond representation, each in their own way.