Ausstellungen Berliner Galerien: ART BASEL 2017: Aurel Scheibler

Die Berliner Galerie Aurel Scheibler präsentiert auf der ART BASEL 2017 vom 15. bis 18. Juni 2017 „Augenbilder“ des Künstlers Ernst Wilhelm Nay. (Feature | Hall 2.0 Booth C7)

At Art Basel Feature 2017 Aurel Scheibler devotes his booth to the Eye Paintings (Augenbilder) by the German artist Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902–1968). They date back to a short but pivotal period in his œuvre
of the years 1963 – 1964.

Nay painted this group of works at a high point of his career before his timely death in 1968. In 1964, at his third and last participation at documenta in Kassel, a group of six of his
Eye Paintings was exhibited, furthermore an installation called Three Pictures in Space (Drei Bilder im Raum). Three monumental 4 x 4 m paintings were shown hanging from the ceiling in order to create
a new experience for the viewer to be participant of a universal existence of art and human consciousness. This installation – unusual at the time – kindled a torrid debate among critics.

The Eye Paintings denote a culmination in Nay’s oeuvre. The motif of the eye takes up a primal theme that pervades his work from the very beginning. It combines ‘looking’ and ‘being looked at’ and,
as an archetypical symbol, signifies magical and spellbinding powers and furthermore symbolizes light and spirituality.

In the mid-1960s the international public was experiencing grave disturbances and political upheavals, very much like today. These and first signs of a technical and scientific revolution as well as the
progressive conquest of space were altering society’s beliefs and conceptions. Aware of these developments Nay reflected on them in his Eye Paintings. The intense solemnness inherent in these works is still disturbing and yet uplifting today. It marks a high point of an art in which body, mind and the horizon of experience are brought into a sublime harmony.

The publication NAY 1964 focusing on this group of works, with an essay by John-Paul Stonard as well as selected statements from the artist’s scripts, was published by Aurel Scheibler, Berlin and
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne in 2016.
ISBN 978-3-86335-967-6

Messedaten: Donnerstag, 15. Juni bis Sonntag, 18. Juni 2017

Bildunterschrift: Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Blaufeuer, 1964, 200 x 160 cm / 78 3/4 x 63 in.

Ausstellungen Berliner Galerien: ART BASEL 2017: Aurel Scheibler | ART at Berlin

Meisterwerke in Berlin

Viele beeindruckende Meisterwerke der Kunst aller Epochen können Sie in den Berliner Museen besuchen. Aber wo genau findet man Werke von Albrecht Dürer, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Sandro Botticelli, Peter Paul Rubens oder die weltberühmte Nofretete? Wir stellen Ihnen die beeindruckendsten Meisterwerke der Kunst in Berlin vor. Und leiten Sie mit nur einem Klick zu dem entsprechenden Museum. Damit Sie Ihr Lieblingsmeisterwerk dort ganz persönlich live erleben und in Augenschein nehmen können.