SwissArtGallery · Documented identity

Nancy Spero

Nancy Spero’s work makes the image a site for taking a stand: it responds to the violence of war and, from 1974 onwards, devotes itself to representing women and advocating for their cause. Born in Cleveland in 1926 and deceased in New York in 2009, she meets the painter Leon Golub at the Art Institute of Chicago; they marry in 1951. During her stay in Paris, which began in 1959, she creates the Paris Black Paintings. She returns to the United States in 1964 and settles in New York. In 1972, she becomes involved with A.I.R. Gallery, described as the first cooperative gallery of women artists in the United States. Two years later, the representation of women and advocacy for their cause become the declared focus of her work.

Between 1966 and 1970, The War Series brings together drawings conceived in response to atrocities committed by the US army in Vietnam. In the Codex Artaud (1971–1972), Spero combines typed fragments of texts by Antonin Artaud with painted images of animals or people, cut out and pasted onto paper. These bodies of work demonstrate distinct approaches: one directed towards war, the other based on bringing texts and images together. The War Series is shown at documenta X in 1997. In 2007, Robert Storr selects Spero for the International Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. Solo exhibitions of her work are held, among other venues, at Malmö Konsthall, Hiroshima City Museum of Art, Ikon Gallery and Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea. Her work is also presented at institutions such as MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Gallery of Canada and the Centre Georges-Pompidou.

This profile brings together identity references for Nancy Spero and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

1 references are documented at Germann. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.

Works recorded at auction

Germann

Untitled

Collage and mixed media on paper

Original catalogue wording

Ohne Titel
Collage und Mischtechnik auf Papier.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

View the lot at the auction house ↗

Sources and references

• Reference record
• ARTIC · Reference link only; institutional text and images are not reproduced.
• LoC · Reference link only; institutional text and images are not reproduced.
• NDL · NDL Terms of Use (source attribution)
• Documentary source
• Documentary source

SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
Documentation updated : 2026-10-19