8:00am Saturday 6th June 2009
By Graham Moody
It's not often you see Dulwich linked to the capital of Poland, but a renowned London-based artist has brought the two together in a new exhibition inspired by an 18th century King.
The Polish Connection is a collection of works by Antoni Malinowski mixed with state portraits of Polish royal King Stanislaw Augustus that will be split into two parts, one at Dulwich Picture Gallery and the other at Warsaw's Royal Castle.
The collection is based on Stanislaw's idea to start a national collection for Poland in 1790, commissioning two art dealers to buy a selection of paintings.
However, the King was forced to abdicate before he could pay for the pictures and five years later, much altered and enlarged, the collection came to Dulwich instead of Poland and the art dealers became the founders of the picture gallery.
One of the most valued paintings on display will be the 'Portrait of Stanislaw Augustus in Coronation Dress' by Marcello Bacciarelli, which the King himself believed to be the painting that most resembled a likeness to him.
That is one of five state portraits of Stanislaw by either Bacciarelli, the Polish King's court painter, or Johan Baptist von Lampi the Elder, a well-known portrait painter, that have been lent by the Royal Castle and the National Museum in Warsaw to the gallery.
These will be intersected with pieces by Malinowski, whose work is a meditation on light, colour, painting and the endurance of ephemeral gestures.
In Dulwich, he has done work both inside and outside the gallery, where visitors will be greeted by a large external painting filling the niche on the left-hand side of the gallery's facade.
A fragment of a strong red arch will underpin its composition and allude to the triumphal arches built to greet crowned heads visiting foreign lands.
Inside, Malinowski has created a linear wall drawing, applying colour directly to the walls in a work that will interact with the state portraits of the King hung in the same space, linking past and present.
Meanwhile, in Warsaw Malinowski will create another linear drawing installation that will be a continuation of the lines beginning in Dulwich.
The Polish Connection, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, June 16 to September 23, 10am, £5. Call 020 8693 5254 or visit dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk.
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