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| Nicolas Poussin |
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| Cy Twombly |
The Dulwich Picture Gallery has finally given punters something to get excited about as part of its 200th Anniversary. In a rare example of contrasting styles thrown together to elicit a common response, the Gallery has mounted a rich exhibition of the Arcadian dreams of artists Nicolas Poussin and Cy Twombly, and has skilfully combined them with the more secular concerns voiced by the DPG staff. This careful balance of the 17th, 20th and 21st centuries is a stunning achievement. In Room 1 for example, the mind leaps between the rounded forms of Poussin's classical figures and the urgent bursts of colour striding across Twombly's canvasses, anchored by the more immediate and stridently voiced concerns of the staff about "who does he think he is, telling me what my job is?" Elsewhere, Arcadian dreams fill the Gallery space, but lest you enter an unchecked reverie of thought and emotion, here are the staff again, lingering in archways and bickering about "who dreams up these lunch rotas?" I left the exhibition slightly tearful, very moved, and determined to visit again to see if this performance can be kept up during the remainder of the exhibition's stay. Truly Poussin and Twombly would be stunned.
