The Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery’s fifth exhibition in John Soane’s country house in Ealing is pushing the boundaries of the gallery.
The current exhibition ‘Antoni Malinowski and Hélène Binet: Pigments and Photons’ makes use of recent conservation work by displaying contemporary artworks among Soane’s collection.
Antoni Malinowski is a London-based Polish artist who has long been fascinated by John Soane’s work as an architect, and has taught at the Architectural Association School of Architecture since 2000.
He said he drifted towards working in architecture in the 1980s, and came to realise his fascination with space was in an architectural way, but still as a fine artist.
Since then, much of Malinowski’s work has influenced and been influenced by the relationship between colour, space and light.
Hélène Binet is a close friend of his and they pitched the exhibition inspired by their shared passion for John Soane’s work and their interest in space and light in their practice.
In order to be able to hold a contemporary exhibition within the Manor itself, Pitzhanger required Ealing Council’s planning permission to install hanging rods and conservation blinds.
In 2023 they were able to achieve this and hang new works in Soane’s house.
Malinowski’s work incorporates light-sensitive materials such as mica powder and interference paints, which are particularly reflective.
Within the space, the paintings seem to move across the canvas as you travel around the room.
Malinowski enjoyed working in the environment as it challenged him to see his work in a new way.
His first painting, ‘Shifted Reflections’, is at the bottom of the stairs and can be seen throughout the exhibition from various vantage points.
Malinowski said he liked when you could view his work from different angles as it functioned as seeing a negative of his work, and oblique angles were where his colour-changing pigments came into play.
Some of the paintings also make use of heavier, traditional pigments often used in the Renaissance, such as vermilion and lapis lazuli.
Malinowski experimented with using modern, iridescent pigments contrasted with the darker hues of the historical pigments.
He compared his materials to instruments, thinking of the mica powder as a brass instrument, and the linen on which he paints as a cello.
The curator Richard Parry also suggested Malinowski included some of his glass fragment collection in John Soane’s Breakfast Room, which reflect and refract the colours of the furniture back at the viewer.
Malinowski also incorporates these glass fragments into his paintings by gluing pieces to the canvas, where they bring the light from the painted colours into the room.
Pitzhanger Manor Director Clare Gough said Soane always intended Pitzhanger Manor to be a place where contemporary art could be admired.
Soane had a large collection of paintings by the likes of Canaletto, Hogarth and Turner on his walls, which are now in Sir John Soane’s Museum in Holborn.
Gough said they wanted to take a leaf out of Soane’s book and use the 19th century house as a place to inspire people with contemporary art.
Gough also said she enjoyed that the exhibitions brought a fresh perspective to Soane’s House.
‘Antoni Malinowski and Hélène Binet: Pigments and Photons’ is open until February 25.
Image credited to Jon Archdeacon
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