From Cambodia to India, Michel de Saint-Chéron traces the fate of André Malraux fifty years after his death

Michaël de Saint-Chéron has published a new biography of André Malraux titled Malraux, une vie au miroir de l’art et du sacré with the publisher Actes Sud. The book marks the fiftieth anniversary of the author’s death. De Saint-Chéron describes the work as his final study of the writer who influenced his life. He argues that for Malraux, the experience of art served as his most powerful spirituality. This view aligns with Malraux’s own writings, particularly in Les Antimémoires, where he stated that art was essential to him in the same way religion is to others. For Malraux, art was a method to defy time and death while seeking connection beyond cultural differences. The narrative traces Malraux’s early encounter with the subject through the eyes of the biographer. In the summer of 1973, eighteen-year-old Michaël de Saint-Chéron and his fifteen-year-old brother François watched the documentary Spécial André Malraux. It aired on ORTF Channel 1 and featured photography by Philippe Halphen. Although the younger de Saint-Chéron had not yet read Malraux’s works, the visual presentation created an immediate impact on the future philosopher of religions. The book explores Malraux’s deep fascination with India and the Far East. De Saint-Chéron notes that questions of transcendence and communion haunt all of Malraux’s writings. Malraux described religious India’s soul as being expressed through agony and twilight. This interest in the subcontinent found a parallel in Haiti during Malraux’s last trip in December 1975. There, he discovered the painters of Saint-Soleil, whose work was deeply marked by voodoo spirituality. This encounter represented the peak of a life defined by expeditions and cultural diplomacy. A specific historical incident from 1923 in Cambodia is examined in detail. Malraux, Clara Malraux, and Louis Chevasson were arrested in Phnom Penh after removing sculptures from the Banteay Srei temple. Literary figures including Gide, Breton, and Aragon signed a petition supporting them, which was published in Les Nouvelles littéraires. De Saint-Cheron expresses surprise that this episode still casts a shadow over Malraux’s memory a century later. He points out that the bas-reliefs remain in the National Museum of Phnom Penh. Furthermore, Malraux later dedicated himself to saving monuments in Nubia. However, the text suggests that becoming a defender of threatened monuments does not erase the initial act of appropriation. There is a risk of romanticizing an affair that involves cultural appropriation. The fame of the Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva owes much to the French writer, potentially reducing the site to the legend of its looter. Despite these reservations regarding the Cambodian episode, the review characterizes de Saint-Chéron’s work as masterful. His approach is described as both demanding and accessible. It illuminates the intellectual trajectory of the man who conceived the "imaginary museum." The analysis connects Malraux’s views to broader philosophical concepts, referencing Levinas and the epiphany of the face. The publication offers a fresh perspective on the intersection of art and the sacred in Malraux’s legacy.