Pastorale 1954

Ernst Wilhelm Nay made this painting called 'Pastorale' with paint, probably oil, and a brush, but also maybe a palette knife? It's a collision of color and form! I can almost feel Nay moving around the canvas, pivoting from one color block to the next, as if in a dance. What do you think he was thinking? Maybe he was trying to find a new way of organizing a painting without resorting to gravity. I can imagine the studio filled with music, ideas bouncing off the walls as Nay applied each stroke. The black lines zip and crackle, holding the composition together, like a tightrope walker balancing the weights. I just love the energy of this piece and how he keeps it all together with just the right amount of tension. I see a conversation with other abstract painters, like Kandinsky, maybe Miro. This feels like Nay's version of a visual symphony, a celebration of color and form, a reminder that painting is thinking, moving, and feeling!