Polish connections

An exhibition entitled ‘Polish connections’ is on at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London. It features a collection commissioned by Poland’s last king Stanislas August Poniatowski in the late 19th century. The show is to last until September 27.

In 1790 King Stanislas commissioned two art dealers, who later became the Founders of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, to buy a collection of paintings as Poland’s national collection. However, he was forced to abdicate before he paid for the collection. Sixteen years later the enlarged collection made it to Dulwich.

The project, co organized by Dulwich Picture Gallery and Adam Mickiewicz Institute is part of the Polska Year – Polish season in the UK.

The exhibition shows portraits of Stanisław August from the collections of the Royal Castle and National Museum in Warsaw including a painting depicting the King in his coronation suit by Marcello Bacciarelli (1769 - 1771).

The story of the collection provided an inspiration for a new installation by Antoni Malinowski, the distinguished London-based Polish artist, to forge a symbolic link between Dulwich Picture Gallery and Warsaw's Royal Castle. (MP)

Photo: Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanislas August in a hat with feathers, from the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw.

Polish Market

ECONOMIC MONITOR

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• ● In December 2009 and January 2010, as in previous months in the second half of 2009, the Polish economy stood out against other countries in terms of GDP growth. Poland’s economic growth was higher than projected and higher than in other European countries.
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• In 2009 construction output increased by 3.7%.
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• Retail sales increase in most product groups.
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• On the Warsaw Stock Exchange, stock prices were very volatile in January 2010.
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• At the end of December 2009 the registered unemployment rate (claimant count rate) amounted to 11.9% versus 11.4% in November.
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• At the end of January the president signed the 2010 budget bill into law. The bill was adopted by the parliament on December 18.
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• In the fourth quarter of 2009 the Polish economy turned out to be more resistant to the global crisis than had been projected and than the economies of Polish neighbours, something which boosts optimism in forecasts for 2010 and the next years.
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Retail sales up again in June
Retail sales growth in nominal terms accelerated in June to 6.4% y-o-y from 4.3% y-o-y in May. The increase was higher than expected. In real terms, retail sales growth accelerated to 4.5% y-o-y from 2.0% y-o-y. June was a consecutive month with retail sales figures stronger than expected, which indicates that consumption is recovering after it slowed significantly at the beginning of the year. Private consumption is driven by an improvement on the labour market coupled with a rise in disposable incomes. In Q2 2010 retail sales grew by around 3% y-o-y in nominal terms and around 1% y-o-y in real terms. On the basis of retail sales and industrial production data, it can be estimated that the GDP growth rate was close to 3%.

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