The market for works by Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902-68) was pushed into a new dimension at recent German auctions.
While his pre-war paintings owed much to Picasso and the Expressionists, after 1945 he devoted himself exclusively to highly colourful abstract works. In 1954 he painted his first Scheibenbilder (Disc Paintings), which were to become central to his oeuvre.
On November 30 Grisebach (25% buyer’s premium) had high hopes for his monumental, 6ft 2in x 11ft 2in (1.89 x 3.41m) canvas Chromatische Scheiben (Chromatic Discs) from 1960. Even though bidding stopped at the lower estimate of €800,000 (£707,965), this was close to double the previous record which had stood since 1991.