Red in Red I 1965

Ernst Wilhelm Nay made this painting, Red in Red I, with oil on canvas. It’s a dance of bold, flat colours, mostly red of course, but punctuated by dollops of yellow, blue and black. The paint feels direct and unblended. You can sense his arm moving as he swaths these patches of colour onto the canvas. I love that in one of the red shapes, he’s left white lines that look almost like teeth or claws, scratching through to the canvas underneath. It's as if he's letting the painting breathe, exposing its inner structure. Nay reminds me a bit of Joan Miró, with his playful shapes and vibrant palette. But unlike Miró, there’s a rawness, an urgency in Nay’s work, a feeling that he’s wrestling with something powerful and untamed. For me, that’s what makes his paintings so captivating. They show that a work of art is always open to possibilities.