Derrière le Miroir / Behind the Mirror was one of the greatest art reviews of the 20th Century. Founded by Aimé Maeght, director of Galerie Maeght, which for many years was the most important gallery in the world for contemporary art, Derrière le Miroir was published on the occasion of exhibitions at the gallery and almost every issue contained original lithographs and woodcuts commissioned from the artist or artists whose works were featured. In format, it was a large publication (380x280mm or about 15x11 inches), featuring photographs of the art on display, articles or poems, about the art and the artist, and the original art of the issue; crucially, it was not bound: the 15x22 inch trimmed pages were folded in half, gathered in groups of four, placed within a heavy duty cover (often itself an original lithograph), and loosed upon subscribers (which seemed almost from the first to include libraries and museums) and visitors to the gallery. Since the roster of artists (or their estates) represented by Galerie Maeght early on included Arp, Alechinsky, Braque, Pol Bury, Chagall, Giacometti, Kandinsky, Ellsworth Kelly, Léger, Matisse, Miró, Riopelle, Saul Steinberg, Tal-Coat, Tàpies, Ubac, and Bram van Velde, this in itself would have made for interesting reading and viewing, but the artists tended to think of themselves as closely involved in the artistic life of the gallery and would recommend artists to Aimé Maeght. For instance Claude Garache told us once that he had been recommended separately to Maeght by Miró and Chagall; I suspect that Joan Gardy Artigas was likewise recommended by Miró, and that Miró may have initially recommended Gérard Titus-Carmel as well (there are a number of photographs of the two of them at very art events; certainly Artigas and Garache recommended him to us). Francis Bacon also showed with the gallery in the mid-1960s as did Richard Lindner in the 1970s. Although this roster of artists by itself would have made Galerie Maeght the Paris center for post-war modern and contemporary art, the genius of Derrière le Miroir was its policy of not just commissioning original artworks in most issues, but also commissioning artists, critics, and poets to write about them. Among the critics whose responses to the work of artists appeared in Derrière le Miroir were André Breton, Lionello Venturi, Dora Vallier, Meyer Shapiro, David Sylvester, Jacques Dupin, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard, and Jean Paulham; many poets and novelists also appeared within its pages, including Tristan Tzara, Guillaume Apollinaire, Louis Aragon, Réné Char, Paul Eluard, Pierre Reverdy, Jacques Prévert, Eugène Ionesco, St-John Perse, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Genet, Raymond Queneau, André de Bouchet, Blaise Cendrars, André Frenaud, Jean Frémon, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Joan Brossa, François Ponge, Italo Calvino, Paul Auster, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Yves Bonnefoy, Tennessee Williams, Claude Simon, Alain Veinstein, and many others. Opening the pages of Derrière le Miroir was always an adventure: one never knew what might appear next.

In part, what put an end to Derrière le Miroir, besides the death of Aimé Maeght, was the changing art market. In 1948, a complete set of Rouault's Miserere (with 58 large mixed-technique intaglios), could be found in the U. S. for Please call or email for current pricing information; now the only way to get a single work for that price would be to find an impression so mat-stained and acid-burnt that it needed to go into an urgent care facility. In 1951, when the first issue devoted to Giacometti appeared with three original lithograhs, Giacometti's signed and numbered etchings were selling for Please call or email for current pricing information each and his drawings for Please call or email for current pricing information; today his signed and numbered lithographs sell for as much as Please call or email for current pricing information. In 1954, the Chagall Paris issue could have been purchased for about Please call or email for current pricing information; by the mid-1980s, this issue, with 7 unsigned original color lithographs and two original black-and-white ones was selling at auction for as much as Please call or email for current pricing information and today, to purchase one of the color plates in mint condition can cost over Please call or email for current pricing information. Aimé Maeght's business plan to lure survivors of the most horrible war anyone could have imagined into buying modern art was, essentially, to give it away; to lure people with unsigned color lithographs they could pin to their walls, to entice them to come back in when the economy began to improve and get them to buy signed and numbered prints by Chagall, Miró, Giacometti, Tàpies, and others; ultimately, to get them to return later for gouaches, paintings, or sculptures: in short, to get them so addicted to living with wonderful works of art that they couldn't imagine living without art and always to entice the nearly penniless to save some of their pennies until they could begin the process just as their parents and grandparents had. The primary lure, besides the wonderful writing, of course were the original unsigned lithographs, to give purchasers a taste of the difference between real living and breathing lithographs and dull, flat, dead photo-reproductions of the real thing.

Composition in black & bluish (Galfetti 140b). Original color lithograph, 1967. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. This sheet appeared opposite page 20. Image size: 380x280mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Untitled: Flame and Mirror. Original color lithograph and embossing, 1967. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. This image was printed on the inner rear cover. Image size: 380x280mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Composition in black & bluish (Galfetti 165). Original color lithograph, 1968. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. This sheet appeared opposite page 2. Image size: 380x280mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Journal (Galfetti 166). Original color lithograph, 1968. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. With the centerfold. One of Tàpies most searching explorations of the way we perceive the world: on a misoriented newspaper page of economic announcements, he has drawn a large "x" and spattered blood-red tusche. Image size: 380x560mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Composition in black, gray, & reddish (Galfetti 167). Original color lithograph, 1968. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. Image size: 380x280mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Composition in black, 3 grays, and bluish (Galfetti 169). Original color lithograph, 1968. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. With the centerfold. Image size: 380x560mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Composition in black, red, & ocre (Galfetti 170). Original color lithograph, 1968. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. Image size: 380x280mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Composition 2 in black and white (Galfetti 171). Original lithograph, 1968. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. With the centerfold. Image size: 380x560mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Lettre X (Galfetti 315). Original color lithograph, 1972. Edition: 75 signed and numbered impressions on Arches paper measuring 540x680mm plus c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. With the centerfold. Image size: 380x560mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Lettre O (Galfetti 316). Original color lithograph, 1972. Edition: 75 signed and numbered impressions on Arches paper measuring 540x680mm plus c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. With the centerfold. Image size: 380x560mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Untitled (Galfetti 408a). Original lithograph, 1974. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. This sheet appeared opposite page 3. Image size: 380x280mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

AMOR (Galfetti 408b). Original lithograph, 1974. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. This sheet appeared opposite page 6. Image size: 380x280mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

FORA (Galfetti 409a). Original lithograph, 1974. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. This sheet appeared opposite page 11. Image size: 380x280mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Untitled (Galfetti 409b). Original lithograph, 1974. Edition: c. 1500 unsigned impressions printed at Imprimerie Arte and published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, for the deluxe art review Derrière le Miroir. This sheet appeared opposite page 14. Image size: 380x280mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information

In addition to his original lithographs for Derrière le Miroir, which were sometimes also published printed on larger paper with margins in separate signed and numbered editions, Tàpies also occasionally produced original lithographs for other exhibition catalogues, a few of which are shown below.

Untitled. Original lithograph, 1968. Edition: c. 1000 unsigned impressions for an exhibition catalogue by the Martha Jackson Gallery. Between 1953 and 1978, the Martha Jackson Gallery gave Tàpies 11 solo shows, his only solo New York exhibitions during this time with the exception of a major show at the Guggenheim in 1962. This eye-catching work was the front cover of her 1968 exhibition catalogue. Image size: 218x178mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information

Grafitti Noir (Galfetti 376). Original color lithograph, 1973. 150 signed and numbered impressions on Chiffon de la Dore paper measuring 295x460mm printed by Imprimerie Art, Paris, and publshed by the Museé d'Art Moderne de la Villede Paris on the occasion of their major retrospective, Tàpies 1946-1973. There was also an edition of unknown size for the catalogue of the exhibition on paper measuring 285x220mm, from which our impression comes. Image size: 285x220mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information

Redfern (Galfetti 732). Original color lithograph, 1979. 100 signed & numbered impressions on Guarro paper measuring 275x270mm printed and published by Ediciiones Poligrafa, Barcelona, for an exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in London celebrating the 15th anniversary of Ediciones Poligrafa plus 30 signed and numbered HC impressions, 5 signed but unnumbered HC impressions, and 15 signed artist's proofs. In addition, there were 1000 impressions on paper with no margins for an exhibition catalogue published by the Redfern Gallery in London celebrating the artists who had worked with Ediciones Poligrafa. Ours is an unsigned impression. Image size: 253x187mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

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