A “Moving” Tribute to the Modernist Jewelry Movement

Pol Bury Bracelet

Written by: Donna Pulese-Murphy

Andrew & Peter Fabrikant have recently purchased one of the most imaginative and sculpturally rendered bracelets of its time. Designed by Pol Bury, A Belgian sculptor, the bracelet featured here is a fine example of the kind of jewelry Modernist artists (such as Calder, Dali, Ernst, Picasso and Man Ray), were designing in the 1960s and 70s.

Pol Bury is most notable for his fabulous “kinetic” jewelry. He was influenced by the Festival of Avant-Garde Art in Paris and an exhibition of kinetic art at the Zurich Kunstgewerbemuseum. Like many artists of the day, especially sculptors like Pol Bury, jewelry served as a model for larger pieces. Bury’s designs, (which were executed by the Gem Montebello workshop in Milan), seemed to actually contain tiny moving filaments that look like something viewed through a laboratory microscope. The Gem Montebello workshop also produced designs by the celebrated photographer Man Ray and sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle, (who designed the fountain in front of the Pompadou Center in Paris.)

Pol Bury's "Kinetic" Bracelet

It is our great pleasure, at Andrew & Peter Fabrikant, to have acquired this piece that exalts talented artists, like Pol Bury, who translated his artistic genius into the creation of unique, avant-garde jewelry. And although Pol Bury is not a well-known name in the jewelry world, we were able to attain for our client a sizable amount of money by finding a collector of Modernist jewelry who appreciates its aesthetic beauty and place in history.