Spero's

Bringing together sixty drawings, this is the first retrospective dedicated to Spero's work in France.

MutualArt's Top 10 Things to See During FIAC Week in Paris (PHOTOS) Sophia Moreno-Bunge 2010

Bringing together sixty drawings, this is the first retrospective dedicated to Spero's work in France.

MutualArt's Top 10 Things to See During FIAC Week in Paris (PHOTOS) Sophia Moreno-Bunge 2010

What is most disturbing about Spero's use of this material is the seemingly neutral, dispassionate manner of its display.

Nancy Spero: no pity 2011

In relation to this the remarkable Codex Artaud 1971-72, represented at the Serpentine by about half-a-dozen large pieces is often cited as Spero's breakthrough moment.

Nancy Spero: no pity 2011

Launched at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, last year, the Serpentine Gallery's exhibition surveys Spero's career from the late 1950s through to her last piece – a large, idiosyncratic experiment in sculpture made in 2008 – revealing the variety of her responses to the challenge of making politically committed work.

Nancy Spero: no pity 2011

In the ferment of the feminist 80s, the universalising tendency in Spero's work attracted criticism as well as praise.

Nancy Spero: no pity 2011

However, the Codex Artaud is arguably better seen as a consolidation of Spero's earlier experiments than a "breakthrough" to a mature method.

Nancy Spero: no pity 2011

Bringing together sixty drawings, this is the first retrospective dedicated to Spero's work in France.

MutualArt's Top 10 Things to See During FIAC Week in Paris (PHOTOS) The Huffington Post News Team 2010

Spero's guns, bombs and helicopters are polymorphous and perverse: male and female by turns.

Nancy Spero: no pity 2011

Spero's untitled lithographs from 1956 echo the ancient Egyptian figures that she scrutinised while a student at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 40s, and her Lovers were inspired by Tarot card imagery.

Nancy Spero: no pity 2011