September 2010

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'The Polish Connection', which runs until 27 September, is inspired by the tale of the abortive first Polish national art collection. In 1790 the Polish king Stanislaw Poniatowski commissioned two London-based French art dealers to acquire paintings to form the basis of the collection. Although the kingdom of Poland was dissolved before the king could take possession, the two dealers – Noel Desenfans and Peter Francis Bourgeois – continued to add to the collection. Eventually the art came to rest (along with their mausoleum) in Dulwich, where it has remained to this day. A quick wander round the gallery will reveal that a substantial number of the paintings on display (marked with a small crown next to the label) were originally destined for Warsaw, rather than south London.

Now, a two-part exhibition has been organised by the London-based Polish artist Antoni Malinowski that aims to link Dulwich with the royal castle in Warsaw, where much of its collection was originally destined to hang. A selection of five state portraits by Marcello Bacciarelli and Johann van Lemper of King Stanislaw have been loaned from the Warsaw royal castle and Polish National Gallery, and these are displayed in two rooms alongside two modern works by Malinowski, both inside and outside the gallery.

However, this exhibition is somewhat disappointing. While both parts of the display are mostly good in themselves, the effort to integrate them does not really work, with the exhibition failing to create a sympathetic or particularly interesting contrast between old and new. Malinowski’s linear wall drawing has a suitably grandiose scale, matching the regal theme of the formal portraits, but it creates a sensation of empty space in which the paintings look uncomfortable, and too few in number, and highlights the small scale of the exhibition. Outside, on the other side of the wall, another modern piece has been worked into a recess. Since its scale matches that of the building, this meets with more success visually, despite looking slightly non-descript. Although the juxtaposition of the spartan Malinowski wall painting with the elaborately flouncy frames of the paintings, especially the rather camp Stanislaw Augustus in a feathered hat (above), is entertaining, the visitor is left with the sensation that both parts of the exhibition might be better if viewed in isolation.

This is a pity, because an interesting set of paintings has been assembled. They shed light on a typical 18^th-century monarch in a number of guises, whether casually clad in a dressing gown for an intimate piece, or the elaborate robes, commanding posture and haughty expression of a state portrait. However, this exhibition is let down by its failure to live up to its central idea, and provide an interesting blend of the antique and the modern. Instead, both manage to make the other look clumsy and out of place. Rather than something greater than the sum of its parts, the exhibition manages to make the good parts of its contents look bad. A greater number of works, better arranged, might have made it work, but at the moment it merits no more than a few minutes attention as you pass around the rest of the gallery.

'The Polish Connection' is at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until 27 September.

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