In Blazing Colors
| Artist | Ernst Wilhelm Nay (German, 1902–1968) |
|---|---|
| Title | In Blazing Colors (In Flammenden Farben) |
| Date | 1955 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | Overall: 49 3/8 x 78 7/8 in. (125.4 x 200.3 cm) Framed: 50 3/16 × 79 11/16 × 1 7/16 in. (127.5 × 202.4 × 3.7 cm) |
| Credit Line | Gift of James and Marvelle Adams in honor of William Lowe Bryan, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 56.1 |
| This artwork is currently on view. | |
An abstract composition filled with vivid, overlapping circles of red, orange, blue, pink, and yellow paint. The circles are quasi-translucent where they overlap thereby creating new colors at the points of intersection. The edges of the circles are blurred.
In the 1920s, Nay studied at the Berlin art academy and in Paris. In 1937 two of his paintings were included in the Nazi-organized Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich and his work was purged from German museums. In the years immediately following World War II, Nay’s work contained references to classical mythology and Christianity. By the early 1950s, however, he was experimenting with a more non-objective form of abstraction. This painting belongs to a series known as the Disc Pictures, which are characterized by circular forms painted in a gestural manner.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"In Blazing Colors | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=56.1