Ernst Wilhelm Nay was instrumental in establishing Modernism in Germany after World War II. In the years after 1945, Nay breaks away from the influence of Surrealism and Expressionism. In 1950 the autonomy of color forms grows, the representational disappears completely from his paintings. Nay finds color, which no longer means anything except itself, which is purified of all representational references as a pure form value. In his "Rhythmic Pictures", which he began in 1951, he used color as a pure form value. Since 1955, he creates his "disk pictures", in which round color surfaces organize subtle spatial and color modulations in the picture.
The common thread through Nay's work is a rhythmic buildup of tension in his composition through line work, especially through the play of color. Nay's lifelong concern is to create the "elemental picture", to achieve all rhythm and dynamics through the color, the most elemental representation.