Dream archives.

The Musée d'Orsay has a rich collection of nearly 93,000 drawings, including 18,000 decorative arts and architectural drawings, plus more than 700 pastels. As they are so sensitive to light, the drawings are not usually exhibited. They are preserved for the most part in the graphic arts department of the Louvre, arranged by size and school amongst other works.

Publicly available in a silent reading room located in the heart of the collection, these meticulously classified archives are a treasure trove of inexhaustible secrets.

The selection of 200 drawings are not seen to be completely representative of the collection, which is too complex to be shown in a single exhibition. Instead, it develops the paradoxical idea of "dream archives", thanks to the challenging and original perspective offered by Werner Spies.
Spies was a close friend of the greatest 20th century masters of drawing, Ernst and Picasso.