Von Goldfarben und Blau 1953

Ernst Wilhelm Nay made this unnamed oil on canvas, playing with gold and blue. It’s all about the dance of color, isn’t it? Look at how the paint sits on the canvas – thick in some spots, almost like he's sculpting with it, and then thin and transparent in others, creating depth and air. It’s a real physical thing, this painting; you can almost feel the energy of his brushstrokes. My eye keeps getting drawn back to the bottom left, where the thick, dark blues and blacks sit. They have a real weight to them, a groundedness. Then, these lighter touches above kind of take off, they lift and float. Nay’s work always reminds me a bit of Joan Miró – that same playful, almost childlike approach to form and color. It is a reminder that art is always in conversation, always riffing off something else. It is never quite saying just one thing.