BERLIN.- On Wednesday October 21, PUREPURYGRAPHY will open at
The Corner Berlin, presenting a selection of nearly forty large-scale single-print photographs taken by Simon de Pury and curated by Chris Rehberger, founder of
Double Standards in Berlin. That same evening, The Corner Berlin will also be the setting for PUREPURYPOP, a glitzy and fun party DJ’ed by de Pury himself. All photographs, including an additional 400 which will be featured in a mammoth catalogue, designed by Double Standards, will be available for sale. The exhibition will close on Thursday December 31.
PUREPURYGRAPHY is synopsis and extension, allurement and coolness, bewilderment and calm – a myriad of paradoxes through which Simon de Pury establishes yet another of his many personifications; that of a passionate and widely-off-the-beaten-track photographer. The selection of images which will be exhibited at The Corner Berlin – one of Berlin’s most sophisticated addresses for the style-sensitive – offers an intriguing view on the life and through the eyes of one of the art world’s leading figures. They reflect the same sensitivity and curiosity which have shaped de Pury’s many-faceted life and are an open invitation to journey along and let the eye and mind wander, pause, take in and move on. The photographs are a kaleidoscope of a nomadic existence as they show intricate foliage, flashes of light, open skies and dense geometrical patterns, streets, smoke, waves of colour and bathroom tiles and only one hint of a human presence – each of them an entire world in one snapshot, a brief moment in a larger-than-life life. The exhibited images, all unique versions in a 170 x 125cm format and framed, will be available for €6,000 each. The catalogue complements the exhibited group with another 400 images which can be also be purchased through
www.purepurygraphy.com
PUREPURYPOP, the swanky party which will kick off the exhibit, highlights de Pury’s passion for music as he will be given the podium and the turntables on Wednesday October 21. As much driven by sound as he is by images, de Pury will set the rhythm and swing to it, sensing the audience’s mood and feeding back into it. A keen alertness to what vibrates around him – the foremost raison d’être of the photographs – will again manifest itself as the crowd dances the evening away.
Simon de Pury is one of the art world's leading figures, renowned for his legendary performance on the auction podium and for his deep and longstanding knowledge of the global marketplace.
He is Chairman and Chief Auctioneer of Phillips de Pury & Company, the leading global auction house for Contemporary Art, Design and Photography and still owns a significant share in the business after having sold the majority in October 2008 to the Mercury Group, Russia's largest luxury retail company.
De Pury joined Phillips in 2001 when his art advisory firm – the Geneva-based de Pury & Luxembourg Art, which he had started in 1997 with Daniella Luxembourg – merged with them.
A spirited and highly successful career at Sotheby's preceded this chapter. Simon de Pury was appointed Chairman of Sotheby's Switzerland in 1986 and later became Chairman of Sotheby's Europe. This function, which he performed with his inimitable zeal and enthusiasm coupled with sharp business acumen, saw him conduct important sales all over the world, including the Thurn und Taxis sales in Geneva and Regensburg, the Margrave of Baden sales in Baden-Baden, the Palazzo Corsini sales in Florence, part of the Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy sales in New York and all major Impressionist and Modern Art evening sales in both New York and London since 1994. He was also the initiator and auctioneer for the historical and first ever international auction to be held in 1988 by Sotheby's in Moscow.
From 1979 to 1986 Simon de Pury was curator of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and organized numerous exhibitions not only in the Villa Favorita in Lugano, Switzerland, but also in major museums around the world. He was also responsible for the coordination of four key exchanges between Baron H.H. Thyssen-Bornemisza – then the most important collector of his time – and the State Hermitage, the Pushkin Museum, the Russian Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Kremlin Museum in Russia.
