Around 1954, Ernst Wilhelm Nay began using the geometric shape of the circle filled with colour, the disc, as an autonomous element of his paintings. Their amplification in graduated colours preoccupied him for approximately eight years, the numerous variations of the motif are called disc pictures.
Nay's often radiant colour palette was a direct reaction to the horrors of the Second World War, after which he moved to Cologne, where he found a vibrant music scene seemingly untouched by the war. He became acquainted with composers such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and his interdisciplinary approach to music was also reflected in a new "musicality" in his paintings.
Like the score of a symphony, these paintings were precisely planned arrangements: "Just as a composer works with tones, I wanted to work with colours to combine rhythm, values, dynamics and rows into one surface". The disc paintings depict a lively tempo and express the artist's hope for renewal. Without any symbolism or external reference, the subject of these paintings is colour itself. Guided by the relationship between colour and form, Nay's tones vary in shading and opacity- creating compositions that seem to defy gravity.

The disc paintings allowed Nay to rise up into the upper echelon of German artists, he received a great number of prizes and was included in the most important exhibitions - i.e. the 1956 Venice Biennial and in the 1958 exhibition "German Art of the 20th Century" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, before the first retrospective of his work in Düsseldorf in 1959 finally established his international importance.