Daniel Cordier, Memoirs of a life
On the occasion of the publication of Rétro-Chaos , the last volume of Daniel Cordier's memoirs, the Galerie Gallimard presents a new exhibition devoted to the life of this great memoirist and historian, curated by Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon.
In the early 2000s, Daniel Cordier began to write a life story in the form of a summary. This would be Rétro-chaos , in which he evokes, between vignettes and a retrospective look, his solitary childhood and his tormented adolescence, his political activism, his commitment to movement La France libre and his work under the orders of Jean Moulin.
He recounts his artistic attempts, his passion as a collector and the adventure of his contemporary art gallery, his beginnings and his progress as a biographer and defender of Jean Moulin, as well as his journey in writing Alias Caracalla which will bring him back to his former comrades and to the places where he experienced the war.
Self-portrait of Daniel Cordier, second half of the 1940s © Sivalax-Cordier family collection
Handwritten note from Jean Moulin to Daniel Cordier, September 11, 1942.
© National Archives of France. Daniel Cordier Fund (1870-2007) - 674AP14
The exhibition
The exhibition follows his journey, from his birth in Bordeaux in 1920, to the consecration of his official funeral in 2020. It is structured around four themes:
- Retro (Chaos) 1920-1940
- Alias Caracalla 1940-1946
- Art Lover 1944-2020
- From History to history 1977-2020
Around a hundred pieces are on display, loaned by Daniel Cordier's family, by the National Archives, by the Dubuffet Foundation and by Bénédicte Vergez-Chaignon, who worked with him from 1989 and published his unpublished texts.
The archives of Éditions Gallimard were also opened for the occasion.
Many previously unpublished documents and objects are thus revealed, such as the tract he had printed in June 1940 to call for the continuation of the war, the manuscript given by Jean-Paul Sartre to Daniel Cordier in 1944 to take back to London, a self-portrait painted in 1946, the illustrated invitation to his only exhibition as a painter, numerous family photos, his correspondence with Jean Dubuffet (his other "great man") or with Pierre Nora (his publisher), but also the handwritten instructions sent by Jean Moulin to Daniel Cordier in September 1942.
Books and works of art that marked his experiences are also brought together: Gide, Valéry, Michaux, Barthes, Dubuffet, the surrealists...
Leaflet written and distributed by Daniel Cordier in Pau, June 20, 1940. © Sivalax-Cordier family collection