Sale: 590 / Evening Sale, June 06. 2025 in Munich 
Lot 125000450
Lot 125000450 
Raumbeispiel
125000450
Ernst Wilhelm Nay
Kleine Silbermelodie, 1956.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 120,000 - 150,000
$ 129,600 - 162,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Kleine Silbermelodie. 1956.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Also signed on the reverse of the canvas, as well as signed, titled, and dated on the stretcher. 51 x 73 cm (20 x 28.7 in).
[AR].
• “Kleine Silbermelodie” was created at the height of the famous “Scheibenbilder” (Disc Pictures) series.
• Pure abstraction and great expressiveness: the disc and color are the sole means of expression, liberated from any figure or form.
• In the year it was created, the artist exhibited several 'Disc Pictures' at the Venice Biennale and, one year later, in the major retrospective “German Art of the Twentieth Century” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
• Offered on the international auction market for the first time.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Rhineland.
Orangerie-Reinz Gallery, Cologne (1986).
Private collection, Hesse.
EXHIBITION: E. W. Nay. Bilder und Aquarelle 1956/57, Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne, March 19–April 30, 1957, cat. no. 6 (with the label on the reverse)
E. W. Nay, Galerie Günther Franke, Munich, August 17–end of September 1957, cat. no. 20 (with the label on the reverse).
E. W. Nay. Retrospektive, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, January 9–February 15, 1959, cat. no. 102 (with the label on the reverse)
50er Jahre, Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Cologne, August 30–October 31, 1986, cat. no. 74 (illustrated on p. 47).
LITERATURE: Aurel Scheibler, Ernst Wilhelm Nay. Catalogue raisonné of oil paintings, vol. 2: 1952-1968, Cologne 1990, cat. no. 790 (illustrated in color).
-
Franziska Müller, Ernst Wilhelm Nay's “Vom Gestaltwert der Farbe” als Künstlertheorie und Zeitzeugnis, Marburg 2016, p. 157 (footnote 557), 187 (illustration 12 on p. 188).
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Also signed on the reverse of the canvas, as well as signed, titled, and dated on the stretcher. 51 x 73 cm (20 x 28.7 in).
[AR].
• “Kleine Silbermelodie” was created at the height of the famous “Scheibenbilder” (Disc Pictures) series.
• Pure abstraction and great expressiveness: the disc and color are the sole means of expression, liberated from any figure or form.
• In the year it was created, the artist exhibited several 'Disc Pictures' at the Venice Biennale and, one year later, in the major retrospective “German Art of the Twentieth Century” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
• Offered on the international auction market for the first time.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, Rhineland.
Orangerie-Reinz Gallery, Cologne (1986).
Private collection, Hesse.
EXHIBITION: E. W. Nay. Bilder und Aquarelle 1956/57, Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne, March 19–April 30, 1957, cat. no. 6 (with the label on the reverse)
E. W. Nay, Galerie Günther Franke, Munich, August 17–end of September 1957, cat. no. 20 (with the label on the reverse).
E. W. Nay. Retrospektive, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, January 9–February 15, 1959, cat. no. 102 (with the label on the reverse)
50er Jahre, Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Cologne, August 30–October 31, 1986, cat. no. 74 (illustrated on p. 47).
LITERATURE: Aurel Scheibler, Ernst Wilhelm Nay. Catalogue raisonné of oil paintings, vol. 2: 1952-1968, Cologne 1990, cat. no. 790 (illustrated in color).
-
Franziska Müller, Ernst Wilhelm Nay's “Vom Gestaltwert der Farbe” als Künstlertheorie und Zeitzeugnis, Marburg 2016, p. 157 (footnote 557), 187 (illustration 12 on p. 188).
Ernst Wilhelm Nay's 'Scheibenbilder' (Disc Pictures), of which 'Kleine Silbermelodie' is a prime example, embody pure abstraction and exemplify the growing recognition of non-representational painting in Germany. From 1955 onwards, the disc became the central motif in Nay's painting, which had gradually moved away from figuration since the end of the Second World War. The disc marked his departure from all angular and edgy shapes and any figurative associations. His compositions began to float across the canvas. This was a completely natural and logical development for the artist. Asked about the disc, he replied that for him, the natural spread of color in the process of painting is the circle. “Initially, my disc idea was entirely artistic. If the composer is a composer of sounds, I wanted to be a composer of colors, using the means of color in combination with rhythm, quanta, dynamics, and sequence on the surface.” (quoted from: Exhibition catalog Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, April 30–June 10, 1998, et al., p. 99) This realization helped him to ingeniously achieve the goal of simplifying his art. Suddenly, color became the sole vehicle of expression, like a pure sound, completely liberated from any figure or form. The present work showcases the disc in its purest form. Nay almost entirely dispensed with linear compositional elements; the arrangement lives solely from color bodies floating on various pictorial levels. He contrasts light shades of white, gray, and yellow with striking black and dark gray discs, interrupted only by a few green and ochre-yellow accents. This creates a balanced interplay between lightness and weight, reticence and esprit, which is impressive even in this small format, thanks to the great compositional density. The work was created at the time of the artist's international breakthrough. In 1956, the artist was represented with his disc paintings at the Venice Biennale and was featured in the major retrospective “German Art of the Twentieth Century” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York a year later. [AR]
125000450
Ernst Wilhelm Nay
Kleine Silbermelodie, 1956.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 120,000 - 150,000
$ 129,600 - 162,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
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