Gide the unexpected

• Exhibition from June 7 to July 20, 2019
• In partnership with the Fondation Catherine-Gide, the Fondation des Treilles and the Georges Borias Museum in Uzès.

© Georges Saad.

On the occasion of the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of André Gide (1869-1951) , the Galerie Gallimard pays tribute to the man who was one of the great inspirations of our modernity. The founder of La Nouvelle Revue Française , through the state of absolute availability to the thoughts and lives of others that characterized him, was in many ways the critical and adventurous conscience of his time. Too respectful of the freedom of each to claim to impose his own on anyone, he endeavored to keep his eyes open to the unknown, the foreign and the inappropriate. This was his entire morality and his great desire, his primary source of pleasure – inseparable from his quest for truth and expression. And this is how, in return, Gide surprises us again, “Gide the unexpected”.

Photograph of André Gide aged 19 by Albert Démarest, winter 1888-1889.
Private collection

"Something strange, bizarre, and that grabs you. That's what I would like, knowing full well that only the unexpected can delight and plunge you into a state of trance."

André Gide, Journal, February 8, 1934

The Galerie Gallimard thus offers a selection of little-known or unusual documents and objects that bear witness to this rare disposition of mind. The pleasure of discovery deliberately takes precedence over the didactic intention. Among the sixty or so exhibited pieces, one will discover a collection of death masks kept by André Gide, a rare portrait of the writer by his friend Maurice Denis, some photographic portraits of his favorite authors, an album of Epinal images, a cane offered by Francis Jammes, rare editions and manuscript fragments, etc.

Drawing by Pierre Louÿs for  Le Traité du Narcisse by André Gide [1891].
Catherine Gide Foundation.

Two contemporary artists, Juliette Solvès and Pierre Antonelli, extend this heritage tribute by presenting their original works, created especially for this anniversary at the suggestion of the Fondation Catherine-Gide.

 Portrait d'André Gide by Maurice Denis, 1892. Oil on canvas.
Coll. part.