Pol Bury: Deluding Time
Because of the duality of his work, Bury also expresses himself in writing: on the one hand dryness, on the other tenderness and a sense of the mystery of the effect produced. When one sees a Bury in action, one never quite knows whether one can trust one’s eyes, whether one has not entered a universe where the ordinary laws of physics are gently beginning to go off the rails. — Pierre Descargues
Since 1953, movement and the experience of time have been Bury’s central themes. The extremely slow movement of his sculptures follows a completely unpredictable pattern.
After his early experiments in non-figurative painting, he fell out of favour with the Surrealists. However, a subtle surrealist touch can still be observed in his work. Although Bury turned away from figuration and limited himself to combinations of mathematical forms and spatial relationships, his free constructions retain a sense of mystery, surprise, and even humour—qualities that initially drew him to the Surrealist movement.
With this exhibition, the gallery also seeks to highlight Pol Bury’s international career. The exhibition “10 plans mobiles”in 1953 in Brussels marks the modest starting point of a career that would soon extend far beyond national borders. It was there that the Parisian gallerist Denise René discovered Bury. In 1955, she included him in her exhibition “Le Mouvement”. Bury exhibited alongside Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Tinguely, Yaacov Agam, Jesus-Rafael Soto, and Victor Vasarely, among others. Although the exhibition was not a major commercial success, it had a lasting impact and is now considered a key moment in post-war art history. “Le Mouvement” also served as inspiration for the Belgian artist group G58 for their exhibition Vision in Motion / Motion in Vision at the Hessenhuis in Antwerp in 1959. Bury’s participation fundamentally altered the scope of this event, which would in fact become the first international exhibition of the ZERO group. Among the invited artists were Yves Klein, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Jesus-Rafael Soto, Daniel Spoerri, Jean Tinguely, and Günther Uecker.
In 1961, Bury moved to Paris, and in 1964 he represented Belgium at the Venice Biennale. On this occasion, he met the New York gallerist John Lefebre, who, captivated by Bury’s work, exhibited him the same year in New York. This marked the beginning of an international career. It was also at Galerie Lefebre that Aimé Maeght discovered Bury and took him under his wing. This resulted in a long friendship as well as a series of exhibitions in Paris, Zurich, and Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
From 1972, Bury returned to France, which did not prevent the Guggenheim Museum in New York from dedicating a retrospective to him in 1980, on the occasion of the installation of one of his fountains in the museum’s rotunda. With his fountains, Bury went on to conquer the rest of the world, reaching as far as Japan and Seoul.
The exhibition at Galerie Patrick Derom does not aim to present a comprehensive overview of Bury’s oeuvre. Rather, it seeks to pay tribute to him and to demonstrate that Pol Bury, a Belgian artist, is a figure of international stature. It is an invitation to travel—a journey into Pol Bury’s unique universe, where time is constantly interrupted, delayed, and deceived… Deluding Time.
