Liegende große Frau. 1946.
Gouache.
Lower right signed and dated. On P.M. Fabriano watercolor paper (with several truncated watermarks). 44.9 x 63.1 cm (17.6 x 24.8 in), size of sheet. [AM].

• Expressive gouache in brilliant colors.
• Oscillating between figuration and abstraction: Nay presents us the figure of the "Liegende“ (Reclined) fanned-out like a kaleidoscope.
• One of the largest gouaches of the entire Hekate period (1945-1948).
• In a dynamic interplay of sharp-edged structures and cloudy shapes, the artist conceived a depiction characterized by a rhythmical elegance
• Currently, Ernst Wilhelm Nay is honored with a grand retrospective (March 25, 2022 - August 6, 2023) at the Kunsthalle Hamburg, the Museum Wiesbaden and the Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst, Duisburg.

The work will be included into the online catalogue raisonné of watercolors, gouaches and drawings under the number 46-130.1. We are grateful to Dr. Magdalene Claesges, Ernst Wilhelm Nay Foundation, Cologne, for her kind expert advice.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany.

"The tensions, the energies of the surface, the color, from color to surface, led to completely different new pictorial ideas, song, dance of the surface, if you will."
Ernst Wilhelm Nay, quoted from: E. W. Nay Lesebuch. Selbstzeugnisse und Schriften 1931-1968, Cologne 2002, p. 179.