Biographical Data
Born in Haine-Saint-Pierre, Belgium, in 1922. Pol Bury studies in the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Mons in 1938 and afterwards does a bicycle tour around France. Close to the surrealists, member of the Rupture group (1939-1945) and the Cobra group (1948-1951), Pol Bury abandons painting in 1953 to center himself exclusively on a project about abstract form and movement. In 1955 he participates in the exhibition Le Mouvement in the Denise René Gallery, in Paris; which will set the foundations of Kinetic art. In 1964, he represents Belgium in the Venice Biennale. Pol Bury dies in Paris in 2005.
Brief Chronology
In 1953, Pol Bury creates his first Reliefs and Plans Mobiles: geometrical pieces of wood which are set to rotate on an axis. In 1954 he gives slow movement to his sculptures with the use of small electric engines (Multiplans series). During the 60’s he experiments with Op art and creates the Cinétisations. After this he begins using stalks, balls, marbles, metallic cylinders and magnets in his sculptures. He works at the multiple international requests he gets and creates the Fontaines, stainless steel fountains that work with hydraulic energy which sets in slow motion the elements that make up the piece (University of Iowa, 1969; Fondation Maeght in Saint Paul de Vence, 1978; Palais Royal, Cour d’Orléans in Paris, 1985; etc.). In the 90’s he also works with square shapes, in mirrors, drawings, collages; he uses his computer to touch up a series of pictures of great artists of the past. He illustrates books, stories or poems (À bras le corps by André Balthazar, 1965, or La Statistique conjugale by Balzac, 1998). He has published several books such as L’Art à bicyclette et la révolution à cheval (1972) or Le sexe des anges et celui des géomètres (1976) in which he vindicates pleasure and irony and rejects “getting muddled up with metaphysics, philosophies or ideologies of any type”.
P.L.T.
Volume figé MNC 218, 1993, Copper, 24 x 35 x 35 cm / 9,4 x 13,7 x 13,7 in.