Orakel 1964

In Ernst Wilhelm Nay’s painting Orakel, the canvas is alive with bold gestures and a vibrant yet limited palette. I can imagine him, in his studio, dancing with the painting—a back and forth of applying, stepping back, and reacting to what's already there. It feels like Nay might have been thinking about music—the way the circular forms in yellow, green and blue repeat, echo and shift, like notes in a melody. I'm drawn to the thick strokes of deep blue, they anchor the composition and lead my eye around the canvas. See how he lets the paint drip, embracing the accidental and the unpredictable. It’s as if he is in conversation with artists like Kandinsky and Klee, while pushing towards his own unique visual language. Nay invites us into a space of playful exploration, where intuition and emotion take center stage. Painting is such an ongoing dialogue, a constant exchange of ideas across generations, inspiring new forms of creativity. Ultimately, the meaning of Orakel is open, waiting for our own interpretation and response.