Antoni Malinowski at the Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery and Clare Gough, Director

We met Antoni Malinowski outside Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery in Ealing Broadway on one of those lovely days that is beautifully autumnal without the cold snap yet. We met outside for a coffee; a macchiato for him. He’s just been on the phone to one of the course organisers at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, where he’s taught for over ten years. It’s an easy introduction into one of my first questions, since Malinowski’s work is very engaged with the intersection between architecture and fine art. He’s worked for the AA since 2000 and is an integral part of teaching the only practical, structured course on colour in any architecture school in the UK. He says he drifted towards working in architecture since in the 80s, the people who were interested in and buying his work were all architects. He came to realise that 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. We are at the Pitzhanger to see an exhibition of his and the photographer Hélène Binet’s work. Binet is an old friend of his and they had the idea to pitch a show together called ‘Pigments and Photons’, inspired by their shared passion for the architect Sir John Soane’s work (the Pitzhanger Manor was his country home). The exhibition he is about to take us through is in the old manor rather than in their gallery space, which is a new development for the Pitzhanger. The idea was always to hold contemporary exhibitions in the manor, but it required Ealing Council’s planning permission to install hanging rods and conservation blinds. In 2023 they achieved this and were therefore able to hang works in the original space.



‘Antoni Malinowski and Hélène Binet’s: Pigments and Photons’ is only the fifth exhibition to be hung in the Manor, and Malinowski was originally apprehensive about showing work he had already made in an unfamiliar space. The light is especially important for his work, since he works with mica backgrounds and interference colours, meaning that his paintings are particularly light-sensitive. In the end, he enjoyed the challenges the space provided and it reminded him of the wall paintings he has done in his career. It meant he could engage with his work in a fresh way and experiment with the journey of light, as guided by surfaces.



It becomes abundantly clear as we walk through the exhibition that Malinowski’s work could almost have been made for this space. The first painting we come across is called ‘Shifted Reflections’. It is on a stand by the bannisters up to the main room. Malinowski also wanted to show some work on stands, meaning that he could be in control of where they sat in the space. This first painting is spectacular, especially since it can be viewed from so many angles. Not only are you faced with it as you enter the space, but it is visible on the staircase throughout the exhibition. Malinowski particularly enjoys when you can view his work from angles, he describes them sculptures in their three dimensions. When we see ‘Shifted Reflections’ from above, he says we are almost seeing a negative of the work; oblique angles are where the reflective surfaces and interference pigments really come into play and you can understand the spatial journey of the work.



When planning to visit a gallery, I rarely check the weather, but this is one of the only indoor exhibitions where it really makes a difference. As the sun dips behind clouds and re-emerges, the large painting in the main room, ‘Demeter’, transforms. Malinowski balances use of traditional, heavier pigments in his work, such as vermilion and lapis lazuli, and the lighter interference, chroma pigments. These are pigments that reflect and refract, creating different colours as the light moves across the work. He enjoys the tension between these historical materials that are a completely different weight to the more modern, technical chroma colours. ‘Demeter’ echoes the room in its composition which creates a rhythm, and a conversation between the physicality of the work and of the room.



Some of the works in the show are painted on polyester, so that the ground created is particularly smooth, and the full effect of Malinowski’s mica backgrounds and use of interference colours can be fully felt. However, the next work we see, ‘Almost Seen’, placed in the Breakfast Room, is on an unprimed heavy linen; he enjoys the way that these materials are almost completely different to work with, just as he enjoys the tension between traditional and new pigments.



He thinks of his materials with instruments: the mica on polyester is like a brass instrument, and the unprimed linen like a cello. Within the room, there are some of Hélène Binet’s beautiful photographs on the theme of angels, nestled in an and amongst some of Malinowski’s collection of glass fragments. Previously the shelves in this room were empty, but the curator Richard Parry suggested that he brought in some of his collection at home. His deep fascination with the way that light moves in space is extended from the canvas out, and the colours are spectacular.



This not the last we see of the glass tesserae, since in the vermillion Drawing Room, Malinowski has attached small fragments of glass to his canvases. He enjoys experimenting with the idea of dimensions, and these glass pieces with their reflections and refractions bring the light into the painting and back out into the room. These works are hung on the back wall as part of the new hanging system in Soane’s Manor.



I later spoke to the Director, Clare Gough, about the new ability to hang paintings in situ in the Manor. Soane always intended Pitzhanger to be admired, and wanted all his friends and acquaintances to see his collection, particularly if there was a chance of a new commission. He went on a Grand Tour early in his career, and visited Pompeii’s classical ruins and Rome’s architecture, which greatly influenced his practice and collection. By the time he built Pitzhanger in 1800, England was at war with France, so young people could not travel to Italy via France. Soane decided to put up his beautiful collection of artifacts, including classical ruins and pieces of architecture, around his house to educate his apprentices and inspire guests. Alongside these pieces, he displayed contemporary art, such as pieces by Canaletto, Hogarth and his friend Turner.



Gough said they wanted to take a leaf out of Soane’s book after the conservation project finished in 2019. They had an exquisitely-restored 19th century house but Soane had taken everything from his collection back to his London house, so it was empty. It was decided that it should be a space for displaying contemporary pieces, that both inspire the audience and take inspiration from Soane’s own work. Gough also enjoys the fact that the exhibitions bring a fresh perspective to Soane’s work, such as in Binet’s photographs of the angels from the Ponte San Angelo, or Malinowski’s play with light. Displaying art in situ in the Manor gives artists such as Malinowski and Binet an opportunity to work with the house's nuances and idiosyncrasies, creating truly unique exhibitions.

‘Antoni Malinowski and Hélène Binet: Pigments and Photons’ is open until January 12.



Text by Emily Godwin, photos by Jon C Archdeacon.