A major retrospective in Hamburg shines new light on the breadth of the Modernist painter Ernst Wilhelm Nay's career:
Ernst Wilhelm Nay at work, 1964. © Barbara Deller-Leppert/Photo archive Ernst Wilhelm Nay Foundation.
Exhibition view of Ernst Wilhelm Nay’s retrospective at Hamburger Kunsthalle. Courtesy Ernst Wilhelm Nay Stiftung. After the war, Nay’s international career took off when he participated in the Venice Biennale in 1948 and the first-ever Documenta in Kassel in 1955 . In 1956, Nay represented Germany at the Venice Biennale. He caused a stir at the third Documenta when he presented his now-celebrated “Eye Paintings,” which were hung from the ceiling—a move that divided audiences at the time. He died in his studio in Cologne in 1968.. Alexeyev-Brandl Collection. © Ernst Wilhelm Nay Foundation.