French Literature Reviews - 2026

W. Spies, An Inventory of the Gaze: Writings on Art and Literature
Art and Visual Culture

Werner Spies
AN INVENTORY OF THE GAZE. Writings on Art and Literature: Max Ernst - Collages: Inventory and Contradictions I - Max Ernst - Collages: Inventory and Contradictions II - Max Ernst - From Material to Style - Picasso Sculptor - The Picasso Continent - Pathways to the 20th Century - Surrealism and Its Time - Between Action Painting and Op Art - From Pop Art to the Present Day - Literature and Studio [2011]. Ten-volume box set sold together. Edited by Thomas W. Gaehtgens in collaboration with Dorian Astor and Maria Platte, trans. from German by a team of translators, 4356 pages, 1508 ill., hardbound, 140 x 230 mm. Livres d'Art, Gallimard -art. ISBN 9782070132003. Publication date: 08-12-2011. €159.00

This ten-volume box set of Werner Spies's writings on art and literature is an "inventory" spanning two centuries of art history, from the late 18th century to the most contemporary creations. Featuring approximately 1,500 illustrations, it constitutes an incomparable monument that enables us to understand, perhaps for the first time, all that was at stake in Picasso's oeuvre. Max Ernst—by his own admission—came to know himself better through the reflection of this keen eye.

This ten-volume box set compiles critical writings by Werner Spies, focusing on visual arts and literature. Spies is widely recognized for his scholarship on 20th-century avant-garde movements, particularly Surrealism, and his prolonged engagement with the works of Pablo Picasso and Max Ernst. The collection gathers essays, studies, and reflections that traverse critical moments in modernism, from collages and sculptures to the developments of Action Painting, Op Art, and Pop Art.

Readers interested in the methodologies of modern art criticism and the intellectual history of 20th-century aesthetics may find this comprehensive box set a relevant addition to their studies of the period.