"Mobile Plans" by Pol Bury
“One of the main reasons I turned to this kind of research [this refers to Plans mobiles] was my weariness with the archaic convention of the easel painting. Since my first plans mobiles, I’ve never been able to paint a single picture; fixed forms, limited to the rectangle, can no longer fascinate me. I don’t question whether my research has taken me into the realm of sculpture. In my opinion, we shouldn’t stop at the borders between sculpture and painting; the two will eventually intermingle, and the convention that separates them is not a necessity.”
Pol Bury in a letter to Roger Bordier, January 17, 1955, published in Cnacarchives 7, Pol Bury, Ivry, 1972, p. 61.
Although aesthetically closely related to his geometric paintings of 1952 and early 1953, the Plans mobiles mark, both literally and figuratively, a turning point in Pol Bury’s work. At the “10 Plans mobiles” exhibition at Galerie Apollo in Brussels (December 4-17, 1953), where this relief was on show, the public was invited to manipulate the works by turning them on their axis. Perhaps in reference to Marcel Duchamp’s Prière de toucher (1947), the works were accompanied by a label reading “Veuillez toucher” (“Please touch”).
At least as important as the break with classical, static canvas painting was the visit to the exhibition by Parisian gallery owner Denise René. It was Victor Vasarely, who had close ties with many major Belgian art collectors, who drew her attention to this exhibition in Brussels. Les Plans mobiles secured Pol Bury a place in Denise Renée’s 1955 exhibition Le Mouvement.
This exhibition, accompanied by a text by Pontos Hultén, brings together works by Yaacov Agam, Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Jacobsen, Jesús Rafael Soto, Jean Tinguely and Victor Vasarely. As such, the Plans mobiles are the works that firmly established Pol Bury as one of the leading avant-garde artists of the post-war period, and enabled him to break onto the international scene.
Provenance: Robert L. Delevoy CollectionBrussels Private collection, Brussels Published: Milan, X Triennale di Milano, August 28 – November 15 1954, no. 29, ill. 3, p.5 (not exhibited) K.N. ElnoLuc Peire. Vormen van HedenKnokke, 1957 (exhibition catalog) ill. Jean SéauxPol Bury” in QuadrumBrussels, n°5, 1958, p.142, ill. Wieland SchmiedAndré Balthazar, Pol Bury, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, 1971 (exhibition catalog), p.32, ill. Michèle MoutasharJean Tardieu, Anne Tronche, Roger Bordier, André Balthazar, Simon Watson Taylor, Dore Ashton, Gilbert LascaultEugène Ionesco, Daniel MarchesseauPierre DescarguesPol Bury, Arles, 1979 (exhibition catalog), p.52, ill. b/w. Karel GeirlandtPhil Mertens, Jean DypréauWim Van MuldersHedwige VerschaerenL’Art en Belgique depuis 45, Fonds Mercator, Antwerp, 1983, p.68, ill. Rosemarie E. PahlkePol Bury, with catalog raisonné, Crédit communal, Ghent, 1994, p.120, cat.53-11 Gilles MarqueniePol Bury online catalog raisonné, cat.R003 Exhibited : Galerie Apollo, Brussels, Pol Bury. 10 mobile plans, December 4 – 17, 1953. A.P.I.A.W, Liège, Pol Bury – Jean Rets, February 23 – March 7, 1957, ill. Galerie Le Rouge et le Noir, Charleroi, Jean Rets – Bury – Fernand Carette – Jo Delahaut – Paul Van Hoeydonck – Guy VandenbrandenApril 6 – 19, 1957, ill.