Pierre Cordier Biography
Pierre Cordier is a Belgian artist born on 28 January 1933 in Brussels. He studied at the École Nationale des Arts Visuels in Brussels and later became a professor at the same institute. He is known as the inventor of the chemigram, a technique that combines painting, photography and science without the need for a camera. This innovative technique has allowed him to exhibit his works all over the world, with exhibitions at major museums such as the MoMA in New York, the Musée d'Art Moderne in Brussels and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Cordier's first chemogram dates back to 1956, when as a child he repaired the shutter of an old Kodak camera with one of his mother's garters. Since then, he has continued to explore the possibilities offered by the combination of painting and photography. He has always had a strong passion for experiments and inventions, considering art as the expression of creativity and research.
The chemigram technique is based on the use of silver salts, which make the surface photosensitive, but without the need for a camera. Cordier uses resists, such as paint, wax, or adhesive, to create shapes on the photosensitive surface. By dipping the paper alternately in the developer and the fixer, the artist obtains unique images that are impossible to obtain with other artistic techniques.
In 2011, Cordier collaborated with Austrian artist and painter Gundi Falk, creating a series of works called "Windows on the Unknown," which show ruggedly lined nests opening onto a night where stars, moons, suns and unknown beings. These works represent an opposition between order and disorder, between the controlled chemigram and the random chemigram.
Cordier continues to live and work in Belgium today, exploring new artistic possibilities through the combination of painting, photography and science. In 2007, the Musée de la Photographie Charleroi hosted a retrospective exhibition entitled "Cinquante ans du chimigramme", which highlighted his work with the chemigram over the past fifty years.
