Project 1: Vagrancy

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"The blindness that opens the eye is not the one that darkens the
vision. Tears and not sight are the essence of the eye." Jacques
Derrida.

In 1973 a small book on the theme of Vagrancy, written by
Lenkiewicz, was published parallel to the opening of the Vagrancy
Exhibition in a large derelict building on The Barbican, known at that
time as 'Jacob's Ladder'. The book was introduced by an essay titled:
Melancholy, the 'Dance of Death' and Fool Symbolism, in relation to
Vagrancy. In this essay Lenkiewicz associated contemporary Vagrancy
with a tradition that predates Durer's brooding figure of 'Melancholia'.

Hieronimo, in Kyd's 'Spanish Tragedy' declaims on melancholy:

"There is a path upon your left hand side, that leadeth from a
guilty conscience unto a forest of distrust and fear, A darksome place
and dangerous to pass: There shall you meet with melancholy thoughts,
whose baleful humours if you but uphold, It will conduct you to despair
and death."

Lenkiewicz considered the extraordinary medieval iconography that
represents the 'Dance of Death'; and in particular the image of Death
as 'Jester'.

"In 1568 a Fool Society elected itself in Poland under the name of
the 'Babinian Republic'. Its structure was a duplicate of the Polish
Constitution, and it filled its offices by employing fools. Those
activities perpetrated by non members that were considered sufficiently
foolish, were admired, and the person responsible for it was forced to
join this Society. He was supplied with a licence, seal and a position
that suited his folly. The Society became so large that hardly any
person of consequence in Church or Government was not a member of it.
Eventually the King of Poland, Sigismund August II, asked the Babinian
Republic if they had a King. He was informed that as long as he lived
the Society would not dream of electing another."

The poor-law legislation act of 1388 forbade the relief of
able-bodied beggars. It took 500 years for repressive and punishment
techniques to be replaced by rehabilitative ones. Attitudes towards the
vagrant have changed far less than the laws. To put the 'law' or
'service' into operation does not carry with it the commitment or the
responsibility of the man paid to do it.

"Fool Societies continue to self-elect."

In the early seventies Lenkiewicz schmilosophically influenced by
Schweitzer, Buber and Dolci, took over a number of derelict premises
where he housed several hundred (dossers, cowboys) vagrants. The
manager of Olivetti's in Southside Street allowed Lenkiewicz to present
the Project on Vagrancy in the large stables at the rear of his
property in 1973. Lenkiewicz became involved with a wide range of
remarkable street-people. Some of them were difficult, dangerous and
extremely demanding. He established relationships with similar
'do-gooding' group activities in Exeter, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds
and London; as a result of which, it was possible to 'swap' the problem
'cowboys' with mutual benefit. Endless tales can be told about these
unusual personalities, some of whom reminded Lenkiewicz of wandering
visionaries like the Desert Fathers. He learnt early on not to
romanticise or sentimentalise the lives of people who suffered in
varying and complex ways from alcoholism and who had severed normal
contacts with Society. The 'Cowboys' divided themselves into what they
called "I st, 2nd and 3rd Division and non-league players".

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
'Walking Stick'.

"It ain't no good in squawkin' when you're stoney broke and walkin'."
'Brother Blair'.

"If your feet get sore, walk on your hands."
'Senator Lynch'.

They had formulated a curious language out of a limited number of words:

"Let's tarpaulin muster, no deep tankin'. I've done a Hank Marvin
with a comic singer, and the gaff hanger is coming to the bardo. Muster
yolks are dead sham, shoot the craw, no more Jack the Ripper. I haven't
broken ice and there's no Giro for Cairo. A rustle is better than a
rattle, we'll need a Burma Star for the quick draw. Box clever, dive
bomb or we're for Jimmy the rattler. The dirty rat's done a Cagney, so
we'll need a bottle of the hurry up. I'm stuck with a Tootie Hawker and
a colshy Muck, there 's no ships on the horizon an' me trousers are a
laggin' cage."

Some of their names:

'Gentleman Jim', 'The Horse', 'Jukebox', 'Have no fear', 'Mouth
McCarthy', 'Be-my-guest', 'The Bishop', 'Brother Blair', 'Chic the
Bam', 'Steal-a-Horse', ' The Bag-o-Rags', 'The Singer', 'The Steam
Hammer', 'The Rhodesian', 'Harmonica Jim', 'Scarface Fitz', 'Big John
Wayne', 'One Way Rogers', 'Straight Back', 'The Roadrunner',
'Mephistopheles', 'Tank', 'Big Take it Easy', 'Black Sam', 'Cockney
Jim', 'The Irish Compressor', 'Billy the Kid', 'Senator Lynch',
'Brighton', 'Big John Barr', 'The Janner', 'Tragic Limp', 'The Silent
Beggar', 'No more cider for old Les Ryder',

Nearly all of the above are now dead.

Project 1a: Vagrancy

In 1996 or thereabouts, Robert exhibited the following paintings at The Annexe and associated them with the Vagrancy Project in 1973.

However, several features of the exhibition lead one to conclude that most of the paintings were of far newer vintage. Firstly, the images show the thin paint and very purple pallette seen in the artist's later work rather than the thick paint and sombre blues and greens of 'genuine' vagrancy work. There is also the proponderance of images of Les Ryder, looking his age in 1996 rather than 1973! It is no coincidence that Mr Ryder was the only surviving vagrant still available to sit for paintings.

The condition of the older canvases suggest that much of the work consisted of extensive restoration of old canvases - often to the point of complete repainting.

1. ‘The Bishop’ and the Painter dance to Mahler in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.
2. ‘King Ryder’.
3. Crying man in Wells St Skipper.
4. Double study for ‘Plymouth Mourning over its Unfortunates’ (This painting can be viewed at the main studio.)
5. Les Ryder just out of prison (Available as a Limited Edition print.)
6. ‘Diogenes’ in the window studio at night.
7. Albert Edward Ernest Fisher (‘The Bishop’) startled.
8. Les Ryder sleeping in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.
9. ‘The Singer’ asleep in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.
10. ‘The Lynch’ asleep in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ (The Cardboard Box man).
11. Les Ryder in blanket.
12. ‘Box-car Riley’ Isolation Study.
13. ‘Box-car Riley’ Rear View Isolation Study.
14. ‘The Bishop’ explaining to ‘Diogenes’ why the sky was falling down. ‘Diogenes’ did not want to listen, but I did.
15. ‘Black Mac’ crying - The Man with big hands.
16. ‘Diogenes’ Double study.
17. Les Ryder judging the world in his sleep.
18. ‘The Bishop’ talking to the fox in Stoke Damerel Churchyard.
19. ‘Diogenes’ reading the newspaper.
20. ‘The Bishop’, ‘Diogenes’ and Les Ryder asleep in ‘Jacob’s Ladder’.
    Study for ‘Plymouth Mourning over its Unfortunates’. See No. 4.
21. ‘The Bishop’ asleep on red chair.
22. ‘The Bishop’ and ‘Diogenes’ naked.

Project 2: Death and the Maiden

The Death and the Maiden Project was exhibited twice, first in Plymouth and then in Coventry:

1) Date: 20 July - 1 Nov, 1974.
Venue: The Fool, 7 Clifton Street, Plymouth.

2) Date: c. 10 Nov – mid Dec, 1974.
Venue: Wilmas Galleries, 163 Spon St., Coventry.

There were 72 paintings shown at The Fool. Less than 20 sold. All paintings plus an additional four were included in the show at Wilmas Galleries. Wilmas’ price list names the buyers of the sold works, and for the others the prices were raised 75% on average.

Lenkiewicz produced a booklet, ‘Notes on Death and the Maiden’, that was sold at the exhibitions. The booklet is 37 pp, plus a page explaining the front cover illustration. Most unusual for Robert, this illustration, which is also used on the exhibition poster, is not his own but redrawn from a German 19th century book. There are also two extra plates, clearly late additions.

In 1997, the following brief explanation of the Project was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work.

"All union of sexes is a sign of (coming) of death; and we could not know 'love' were we to live indefinitely." Anatole France.

In 1974 Lenkiewicz produced a small book titled: Notes on Death and the Maiden. This ran parallel with the Exhibition of the same title at his premises on the corner of Clifton Street. The book was an abbreviated version of a large book of notes on cultural attitudes towards death, corruption and decay. Page 10 of these notes introduces ideas that linked the fear of hell with the fear of decay. The notes proceed to develop the idea frequently suggested by art-historians, that the allegory of Death and the Maiden expresses not only the fear of death but fear of the female. Lenkiewicz felt this was an unsatisfactory interpretation, and that the issue was complex, with shadows cast from unexpected areas.

He noted the curious attention in Medieval Danse Macabre images given to the corpses. Striking woodcuts of decaying representations of Death dance before their victims on the edges of graves. What seized his attention however in these ghastly images were the flailing viscera from open abdomens - a parody of pregnancy:

"...this decomposing woman was designed to bear children, but the contents of her stomach reveal only the destiny of birth. "

Many of Lenkiewicz's studies for this project considered the cycle of birth and death. 'Death' presenting his intestines to the Maiden was explored along with the formula of the Three Magi and their Gifts. The decay of the body is frightening. It is this same body, however, that is bound up with our personal sex lives. Fear may stimulate eroticism and death takes on unexpected possibilities. Desire and decomposition interrelate. Putrefaction need not smell the decay of 'love' has its own immediately recognisabie odour. Illusions rot and fragment, and as the body filters into the earth, so the memories of 'loves' vaporise and die. In the decomposition of our 'loves' we unwittingly attend our own funeral. Death and the Maiden echoes the mortality of our affections, and encourages us to consider them more carefully.

Project 3: Mental Handicap

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"Some people has brains and don't use 'em. I'd give most things for my kids to 'ave 'em. There you are, it's a funny old world." Parent.

n 1976 Lenkiewicz produced a small book titled: Mental Handicap/Survey Plymouth. He asked several hundred families for permission to paint children and adults, representing a variety of mentally disadvantaged conditions.

The Exhibition was presented in the same derelict warehouse that had housed the Vagrancy project on the Barbican. Massive though the project was, it fell on deaf ears. Though some degree of social insight had developed and it had been a long time coming - it was still far from satisfactory at the time of this project. Today, complacency is fast replacing ignorance. At the end of her contribution to Lenkiewicz's published survey, Baroness Vickers of Devonport and Life President of the Plymouth Society for Mental Handicap, noted:

five hundred parents of those depicted (in Project 3) have had great courage in allowing these portraits to be shown because they realised that this Exhibition may make a major change in the whole of the general public to the mentally retarded in Britain."

Lenkiewicz's somewhat harsh preface to the Mental Handicap Survey observed that:

"A handicapped child means a handicapped parent...complaint has produced most of our art and literature, and most of our social and educational patterns. We say "Why me? I did not deliberately inflict this problem upon myself. " And here is where we miss the point, for we assume that we do anything, anything at all deliberately... Over the last eight months, four hundred persons and myself have been engaged upon an act of complaint. "

Lenkiewicz proceeds with the observation that 'parents' versus 'society' has always operated upon a basis of certain rules, and that this ritual of maudlin altruism is unproductive.

"The paradox consists of two kinds of brain damage running parallel; the mentally handicapped child/adult and the 'normal ' member of Society. "

A thread runs through even the earliest projects, linking the two issues of ethics and aesthetics, and they certainly surface in both Project 1 and Project 3.

Project 4: Love and Romance

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"How nicely does doggish lust beg for a piece of spirit when a piece of flesh is denied it." Nietzche.

In 1975 Lenkiewicz produced a booklet titled: Love and Romance: A Note. This ran parallel with an Exhibition on the theme of Love and Romance. Lenkiewicz held the view that the traditional 'love' experience involved some kind of selective procedure; and that this selectivity was not conscious or deliberate. This worldwide human commonplace has been aggrandised and raised on pedestals of all kinds. Poetry and Literature has exemplified this physiological phenomenon from ancient times. He thought it interesting that other 'transcendent' or 'theological' experiences seemed to be made out of similar ingredients and that unexpected deprivation - grief, jealousy - revealed physiological trauma similar or identical to that experienced by the alcoholic or heroin-addict.

He felt that it might be possible to aesthetically 'measure' the degree of addiction and the degree of withdrawals. He commenced a series of 'Aesthetic Notes' which attempted to record physiological sensation by means of certain colours and certain shapes. These notes are rarely seen but are voluminous. This line of enquiry has involved using himself as a guinea-pig and is an ongoing activity. A number of the paintings in Project 4 were elaborate constructions associating with theological artefacts and often gilded with ornate emblems. A large number of ironic devices were constructed in order to draw attention to the mythic undertones that people (usually young) associate with the poetic notion of 'two' becoming 'one'. Lenkiewicz held the view that these behaviours indicated an obsessive, pathological ruthlessness involving patterns that were not unlike those found in political persuasions and fascism. They characterised human emotional development, or rather the lack of it.

Andre Breton once wrote:

"Before I knew you - look, the words are meaningless. You know very well that, when I saw you for the first time, I recognised you at once. "

Lenkiewicz noted in his research that one of the primary claims made by the 'lover' was that of 'union'. A unique twosome leading to a single unit. This did not seem to be so much a philosophical belief as a physiological need. If one were touched aesthetically at a deep enough level then 'ideology', 'fanaticism', 'love', would emerge. These observations were to lead to a careful investigation of physiological behaviour under crisis. The following projects were an expression of these. Imagery centring around The New Testament characterised sections of this project - Lenkiewicz's notes record:

"We are told of two thieves who hang by the side of a crucified man, (in romantic love, there are two thieves constantly stealing from each other, who finally crucify each other). We are further told of the Deposition, when the dead man is brought down from the cross and mourned. (In romantic love, one partner grieves after the lost affections of the other). We are finally told that the dead man resurrected. (In romantic Love, the 'loser' in the attachment replaces the addiction with a new companion.)"

Project 5: Love and Mediocrity

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"The promises have been kept, nevertheless, I have been swindled." Simone de Beauvoir.

This project surveyed a wide range of assumptions and expectations about human relationships. Lenkiewicz viewed many of these expectations as foolish and unkind. In these ironic explorations, he attempted to demonstrate that rituals between couples were not based on reliable precepts: indeed, he attempted to demonstrate that there were no precepts. 'Fidelity' was a theme that ran through many of the images. It cut across a whole range of irrational expectations in human relationships. In the notes on Love and Mediocrity, he writes:

"The experience of 'betrayal' is abrupt, sudden. The sense of shock, of being thrown back against a wall; of being reminded, of remembering something almost primeval. One is not just remembering the 'last time' or the 'time before that'. One is remembering something characteristic of being what one is, characteristic of all that one forgets. The sense of betrayal is to have forgotten that one has forgotten. The inherited isolation which tradition tells us to be happy about, raises it's head (or rather we sink ours into it) every time one has 'forgotten'. The shock is in no way connected with the 'other' person, for they could never be the cause. Oneself and the mirrored image of oneself - disguised as the other person - play this trick time and again. "

Images of 'Lovers kissing each other in front of all their past and future lovers', of 'Man chasing woman chasing man chasing woman chasing man....' Images of Man and Woman tied into a knot. Images of 'Man looking at a woman from a distance - with whom he has just copulated'. Of elderly couples with memories, of isolated individuals involved in a variety of auto-erotic activities. All these and more investigated the thesis that by and large the major part of a relationship's 'meaning' or 'value' passes entirely unnoticed by both partners. 'Addiction Ladders' were considered:

"The memory of an incident halves in intensity each time it is thought about until it becomes as finite as forgetting allows. "

Eccentric links were formed between time ratios for addictions, the aesthetic experience that brought them about, and arithmetical and geometric formulas. Lenkiewicz notes:

"The experimental lover finds that a constant sequence of breakdowns in relationships is supported by the softened edges of previous 'reflections and 'refractions'. Each time the mirror is employed the memory re-situates or 'refracts' the experience through the image of the following one. The recent lover has to thank all the previous 'refractions' of his lover - through other mirrors - for his present obsession. Their previous activities have created the 'refractions' to which his previous taste responded. He has 'fallen in love' therefore, with an infinite sequence of 'refractions ' through the mirror - lover - he now stares into . . . It is a startling thought that as we suffer so deeply from the withdrawals of the 'present' scenario, the next situation is heading inexorably towards us from the future; and it too will be replaced by a sequel. Indeed, most readers of this text can anticipate significant relationships with people who have not yet been born. "

Project 6: Paintings Designed to Make Money

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"It is curious to note to what an extent memory is unfaithful, even for the most important periods of one's life. It is this indeed, that explains the delightful fantasy of history." Marcel Duchamp.

This collection parodied some attitudes towards 'Art'. The 'Diogenes Con Show' displayed 35 studies of 'Diogenes' all of which were titled: This study took 27 minutes, This study took 43 minutes etc. From early portrayals of St. Jerome to today's Father Christmas Cards, the be-whiskered, harmless philosopher-rogue has always been a money-spinner. Even Rembrandt painted such images for Russian and European collectors as a sure income.

'Diogenes' was a well known tramp who lived in a barrel at Chelson Meadow. Lenkiewicz wrote that one clear distinction between the 'image' of 'Diogenes'/philosopher-rogue and 'Diogenes'/Edwin Mackenzie in the real world, is that the 'image' of him is far more acceptable in the average household, than the man himself. Ethics and aesthetics was an issue again.

The second part of Project 6, called 'The Masterpiece Museum', considered another aspect of salesmanship/art. Lenkiewicz wrote:

"The innuendo of the 'masterpiece' is that it's creator has transcended both himself and Society; that it is in some sense, prophecy. If the item has been purchased, then we are reminded of a slave-trader wily enough to buy 'good stock'. Such images develop like institutions or minor religions imbued with qualities that we conspire with. The 'masterpiece' can be seen as an abstracted extension of the 'hero', and its function in Society operates as an amulet or talisman. "

The Exhibition was presented as though the painter had been dead for some years. Lenkiewicz wrote:

"There are many similar personalities in the colourful pageant of (provincial) 'art-heroes'. Few share the distinction of achieving so complete an obscurity in so short a space of time."

A cabinet containing various artefacts of the 'deceased' painter stood by the entrance. Of special interest was the article 'The Uses of Bad Art ' by Geoffrey Grigson, with the note: "It is said that the painter died with this paper clutched to his heart."

Project 7: Gossip on The Barbican

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"The gossip, man... the gossip!" Hume to Boswell.

This project replaced the painter's intention of proceeding with the two more projects 'Love and Humour' and 'Love and Tragedy', which indeed were never to come to fruition. Project 7 localised his enquiry into the notion that 'Gossip was the glue that stuck Society together'. Gossip, Lenkiewicz thought, was an entirely aesthetic activity. Indiscretion came second in the race towards feeling significant in one's immediate environment. But what exactly it was that came first was not so easily identified. In a sense this project was a hint and precursor to Project 10 on the theme of Self-Portrait.

large number of individuals in the Barbican area, from Community Policeman to window-cleaner, sat for Lenkiewicz. The exhibits were coupled with a text, a personal view of The Barbican and it's occupants written by each of the sitters. Project 7 was the first to be exhibited in the premises now holding his Libraries.

Project 8: Jealousy

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"..... how can we move a finger to preserve ourselves from death, in a world in which love is provoked only by falsehood, and consists merely in our need to see our sufferings appeased by the person who has made us suffer?..." Marcel Proust.

In 1978 Lenkiewicz exhibited his eighth project in the 'Relationships Series' on the theme of Jealousy. The original notes were stolen during a lecture that he gave, and have never surfaced. His thesis generally, was that Jealousy takes three, envy takes two. That 'Jealousy' was a natural disorder brought about by aesthetic withdrawal. If the original addiction measured 5% then the withdrawal would be 5%. If it measured 90% then the withdrawal was 90%.

High level withdrawals, particularly for the young, were very difficult to deal with. Lenkiewicz also noted that the vagrant alcoholics he had become involved with, had a term that they employed for the third or fourth time they had withdrawn from alcohol. They called it a "shit and a shave". It appeared to be easier to withdraw as repetition went on. Lenkiewicz wrote,

"Perhaps the 'lover' operated with a similar physiology. The visceral sensations experienced by the jealous lover, torment and isolate with remarkable clarity. "

Lenkiewicz did not subscribe to the notion that some people were more susceptible to jealousy than others, any more than he subscribed to the notion that some starving people were more hungry than others. He saw the process as purely physiological, and that the loss of certain aesthetic 'packages' can create severe, even lethal deprivations. The idea that jealousy is a reaction to trespass on property was an inadequate notion. Certain jealousies call forth sympathy and others, ridicule.

Clearly jealousy arises when there is a challenge to a special relationship. But it becomes clear that the relationship need not be 'special' at all. Entirely unexpected areas of 'aesthetic addiction' can be called up in an atmosphere of loss. The 'Woman walking away' series gave expression to the 'to love is to live in fear of loss' thesis. Further enquiries into the bits/sections/parts of a partner that elicited passions, clarified the possibility that the partner was relevant only in so far as he/she 'sparked off' the long tunnel of aesthetic addictions the lover has entered. Above all, it seemed to Lenkiewicz that the claim that the 'lover' makes on behalf of their partner, viz: that they are concerned for their welfare independently of the 'lover's' own needs is irrationally eccentric.

Images like 'Woman Walking Away', 'Man and Woman Screaming at Memories in the Dark', 'Man holding Woman's Dress Watching her Walk Away', 'Her previous lover disguised as a curtain, watching her with the new one', ... indicate that human viscera has an independent intelligence in these matters. Jealousy was a study of physiology in which the power of aesthetics came fully into focus.

Project 9: Orgasm

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"Inter faeces et urinam nascimur." (We are born between faeces and urine.) St. Augustine.

This project involved a number of cross-referential ideas. Orgasm, sometimes referred to as 'The Little Death', crosses boundaries without a heart. The sexual channels are also the body's sewers. There are unmistakable links between excreta, decay and sexuality. Life can be seen as instability and disequilibrium exhausting it's own resources. It proceeds on one condition; the extravagant procedure of things given life, making room for fresh cycles.

Lenkiewicz notes:

"...that excitement is death-like, the feeling of losing control, being swept off one's feet, the swoon, 'I die because I cannot die', says St. Theresa. "

In earlier cultures than our own the horror of carrion or decomposition linked in a Faustian style with punishment for pleasure. Decomposition was a sign of failure, the underlying meaning of the macabre. Baroque Theatre staged its love scenes in tombs. The sexual act, like death, could be seen as a transgression separating us from daily life, from rational society, work, etc.; plunging us into a violent otherness. A dictatorship controls the body. The genitalia acts on behalf of the whole organism. Orgasm as the release of tension is a revolution, anarchic and dangerous to the order of the body politic. What we desire to possess we fear to lose. The body is never static, it is an energy system whose 'reality' does not consist of substances but of events. These events are aesthetic in their nature. Whatever attraction directs our energy is strangely cannibalistic. What we desire is incorporated- seeing is eating.

"This needful, never spent, And nursing element; My more than meat and drink, My meal at every wink."

When the Aranda Tribe ask each other: "Have you eaten?" they mean, "Have you had intercourse?". The very corpse through which we derive our pleasure is slowly consumed, "eaten", by time, sorrow, sickness and death. "You look good enough to eat", is autophagy, aesthetic cannibalism. At the risk of stretching the metaphor too far, orgasm is the result of 'the vagina' eating 'the penis'. The vagina has a boundary, the penis has it's boundary, orgasm dissolves these boundaries. Only the exaggerations feel true. St. Theresa's remark describes orgasm far more effectively than Bernini's Vatican statue. Orgasm places some part of our consciousness on a tangent to the rest of it; like a moebius strip, the circle appears to have two sides, but in fact it only has one. It is said that we 'love' in order to defend ourselves from beauty. We cannot escape our private aesthetic so we drown in it."

These observations and many others litter Lenkiewicz's notebook on this theme.

Project 10: Self Portrait

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"The mirror, above all - the mirror is our teacher." Leonardo da Vinci.

"The things you experience when you are alone are far stronger and fresher." Journal, 31 March 1824. Eugene Delacroix.

"They say - and I am very willing to believe it - that it is difficult to know yourself - but it isn't easy to paint yourself either." Letter 604 to Theo, St. Remy. 1889. Vincent Van Gough.

"Every day in the mirror I see death at work." Francis Bacon.

Lenkiewicz has always painted his image in the mirror. In 1978 he noted:

"All paintings are 'self ' portraits, only I do not believe in a 'self '. We identify an individual by the boundary their body forms, but that is nothing to do with 'self'. 'Self', like 'Justice', 'Truth', 'Beauty', is poetry."

A large painting titled: The Dead Painter Surrounded by his Children and Companions, relates a number of formulas to the single theme of ET IN ARCADIA EGO. 'I death, am in Arcadia also'. Amongst these formulas are the 'Deposition', the 'Pieta'; and a number of 'Anatomy Lessons'. The self-portrait in this picture is a parody of the death of his own mother and a drawing by Andre Slom of Courbet on his deathbed. There were further thoughts in relation to Munch's Chamber of Death 1892, Daumier's 'We can set that one free, He's no longer dangerous'. Lenkiewicz wrote:

"They surround me, while I live they will always 'set me free'. It is unnecessary to wait for my death, I am given leave to 'die' -within them - long before. Dispensability is death. I shall always be dispensable. For as long as I 'live' I 'die'."

Lenkiewicz also associated this image with Delacroix's 'The Death of Sardanapalus' 1827, and Rembrandt's 'Anatomy Lessons' of Tulp and Deyman. It was Joseph Wright of Derby's painting, 'A Philosopher giving a Lecture on the Orrery' however, that struck Lenkiewicz as an appropriate metaphor. He had been taken by Nietzsche's remark from Beyond Good & Evil:

"There are countless dark bodies which must be inferred to lie near the sun; we shall never be able to see them. Among ourselves that is a parable; a moral psychologist needs the whole language of the stars as only an allegorical and symbolic language. Many things can be kept dark with it."

Lenkiewicz's notes continue:

"... Dead but lit by attending candles from my orbit. Each their own sun, awaiting their extinguished moment... child-philosophers stare in passionless silence at my passing."

He quotes Edward Young in 1759:

"Born originals how comes it to pass that we die copies?"

Project 11: Old Age

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"Dying while young, is a boon in old age." Yiddish proverb.

In the late 70's Lenkiewicz was invited by Plymouth Age Concern to give a talk on ageing.In order to make his point clearer he had himself disguised as an elderly professor. An assistant apologised for Lenkiewicz's absence and brought on with wheelchair and bath-rug Professor Jeremy Jacobson from a London University hospital. Tottering onto the stage (and genuinely unrecognised) Jacobson/Lenkiewicz delivered a commentary on 'Geriatrics versus Gerontology'. He ended the talk with a vitriolic rush of quotations from saints and sages of western culture, illustrating that there was no such thing as a 'green old age'.

"We harden in some places and rot in others; we never a ripen." Sainte-Beauve. "So you managed then, you got by somehow or other? Let somebody else do as much without breaking his neck." Goethe. "I am a disgusting object; the flies, oh these flies, they smell a corpse." Renoir. "The strange thing about growing old is that the intimate identification with the here and now is slowly lost; alone, no hope, no fear, only observation." Einstein. "An armour of insensitivity is slowly forming around me; I observe it, I do not complain of it. It is a natural evolution, a way of beginning to become inorganic. It is what I believe they call 'the detachment proper to old age.' I still cannot get used to the grief and afflictions of old age, and I look forward with longing to the journey into the void." Freud. "In the 'monuments to the dead' that stud my history, it is I who am buried." Simone de Beauvoir. "My diseases are an asthma and a dropsy, and what is less curable, 75 years." Dr. Johnson. "You have my acutest sympathy for what you delicately call the 'nuisance of growing old'. A train has to stop at some station or other I only wish it wasn't such a ugly and lonesome place, don't you?" Rudyard Kipling. "An old man's memories are like ants whose ant-hill has been destroyed, one's eyes cannot follow any single one of them for long." Mauriac. "There is only one irreparable and cruel evil in life - old age. Life is unbearable and the void is all I hunger and thirst for." Anatole France. "My past escapes me. I tug at one end, I tug at the other, and all that stays in my hand is a rotten scrap of fraying cloth. Everything turns into a ghost or a lie." Emmanuel Berl. "Life is like a play, acted at first by live actors and then finished by automata wearing the same costumes." Schopenhauer. "The heart does not grow old, but it is sad to dwell among ruins." Voltaire.

In conclusion, Lenkiewicz removed his make-up, put aside his walking stick and stood up straight, to find himself the most unpopular lecturer Plymouth Age Concern had ever invited. The project consisted of a large number of ironic images as well as many studies of centenarians, ranging from 100 to 113 years old. McVities decided as a mark of respect, to give to the 113 year old lady, a packet of biscuits for every day that she remained alive. She was dead in a fortnight. Lenkiewicz was brought up in an old age home and thought it a moving and salutary experience. It would however, be difficult to dissuade him from the notion that ageing is poor coinage compared with youth and middle age.

Project 12: Suicide

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"Everywhere there were people living out their lives using aspects of suicide against themselves. They did not even have the authenticity of the final act to speak for them. Suicide is, in short, the one continuous, everyday, ever-persistent problem of living. It is a question of degree. I' seen the all in varying stages of development and despair. the failed lawyer, the cynical doctor, the depressed housewife, the angry teenager... all of mankind engaged in the massive conspiracy against their own lives that is their daily activity. The meaning of suicide, the true meaning, had yet to be defined, had yet to be created in the broad dimensions it deserved." Daniel Stern.

The room on 'Death' in Lenkiewicz's Library has a large section devoted to the subject of Suicide. He had studied this material for some time, and subscribed more or less entirely to views like those of Daniel Stern. Lenkiewicz found the whole issue the most compelling of subjects. Viewing life as a tragedy on the grand scale, and well aware that people can suffer, he explored this theme with the intention that he might re-explore it every ten years or so. Suicide raises such harrowing ironies both for the perpetrator as well as the witness, that even the casual observer is haunted to the quick by it.

Some social activities immensely popular in a wide range of cultures, eg. marriage and the family are viewed by Lenkiewicz as suicide techniques. He feels strongly about this and a number of the images in this project relate to the misery people inflict upon each other in short or long term relationships. Depression locks its sufferer into a cage through which one can neither see out of nor in to. It is, in a sense, the psychic equivalent of black holes in space. Great pain leads to silence. Except for suicide, silence is the most extreme form of revolt. As Kierkegaard has observed, whether one does or does not think about despair one musters:

". . . everything to re-explain and explain away entrance and exit, simply lost in the interval between the birth-cry... and the death struggle."

What interested Lenkiewicz in this project was the notion that suicide was murder through mistaken identity; that the suicide may not be motivated towards his personal extinction but rather, he wishes to annihilate the world. Psychology has a great deal to say about this; but how interesting it is that we live so irrationally and insist that suicide cannot be rational. The complex issue of euthanasia will raise its head again and again until it is no longer unlawful. When that day comes, suicide as a whole will become far more acceptable.

Project 13: Still Lives

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

This was a smaller project, and like a number of other projects not all the work was completed or exhibited. Lenkiewicz wrote:

"The inert, the inanimate, is a metaphor for silence. It began with empty chairs, presence and absence. Paintings are still-lives."

He continued:

"Children vitalise the inanimate in a thousand ways; that pullover dark against the back of the door, the door handle, yes it is moving, that lightbulb, that shadow. This remains with us; anything stared at long enough springs to life."

Project 14: The Painter With Mary

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"In all great deceivers a remarkable process is at work, to which they owe their power. In the very act of deception with all its preparations, the dreadful voice and face and gestures, amid the whole effective scenario they are overcome by their belief in themselves which then speaks so miraculously, so persuasively, to their audience... For men believe in the truth of all that is seen to be firmly believed." Nietzsche.

This project involved an unusually intense relationship between the painter and 'another person'. More accurately, this project involved an unusually intense relationship between the painter and himself. More accurately still, this project involved an unusually intense relationship between the painter and some aspect of 'aesthetic fascism'.

Lenkiewicz would meet Mary like clockwork at the Coop cafe. He would run back to the studio and immediately record with eccentric subjectivity a series of notes, written and visual, attempting to illustrate as incisively as he could the precise sensation, physiologically, of what had characterised the meeting. A sense of distance, an erotic innuendo - or was it? A twinge of jealousy, the closeness of the wall to the left of his head contrasting with the great space to his right. The sound of her voice, the way he felt he could balance on one leg on the end part of her laugh, the movements of her mouth, the flow of blouse against the curve of breast. Her running down the stairs with a black flapping coat, the rain outside, the fatigue of the waitress.... and on and on it went. Every transitory trivia, page after page, attempting to trap moments with the old familiar visceral smile.

All this led to a decision to present a complete project on The Painter with Mary. What became clear to Lenkiewicz was that it had nothing to do with Mary; she was to remain a mystery, as all 'others' are mysteries. What did become clear was that the painters' relationship with his own aesthetic vulnerability - known as Mary - was more likely to be a pot pourri of earlier memories kicked into touch by the sighting of 'a person'; with full mouth, blond hair, tall, slender, long-waisted, and entirely indifferent to him. An unrequited energy is the life-blood of creativity. Transcribing these impulses became a sacrificial act, a clear crisp methodology for imposing himself upon himself. It was like a 'scientific discovery', it could haunt the mind for its own sake, nothing to do with the 'other'. The notes were not shown or shared, at least, rarely so. Lenkiewicz found an 'idea' like a 'person' cannot be fixed, he could record only the passing by of things, and that rather poorly. The situation indicated that absorption, fanaticism, obsessive behaviour, lead to the same futility as ideological convictions. Indeed the project became a crossroad in Lenkiewicz's work, with the understanding that relationships do not solve the problem of existence.

Project 15: Death

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"We must either outlive our friends, or our friends must outlive us, and I see few men who would hesitate about the choice." Dr. Johnson.

On Thursday February 11th 1982, an article by Lenkiewicz titled 'The Changing Pattern of Dying' was published in The Western Evening Herald. It was a survey of Western attitudes towards dying from the 12th Century to the present. The observations were, to a large degree, based on ideas presented by Professor Edwin Shneidman and Dr. Phillipe Aries. The article concluded with a request that any dying reader might offer themselves as a sitter for Project 15. A number of 'for and against' letters were published in the following days, in the same newspaper, giving some indication of the climate of views on this subject. Individuals who were dying did agree to sit for Lenkiewicz with startling and varied attitudes. Parallel with these works were paintings of Doctors and Surgeons; "I tend to deal with survival rather than death; but I daresay I've killed a few in my time... regrettable." "Doctor, doctor must I die? Yes my dear and so must I" A number of Clergy, Priests, Bishops; "You would embarrass me greatly if you pursued this matter." (Clergyman's response to request for displaying painting in Project 15.)

Funeral and Burial representatives. Above all, however, the individual sitters who were dying; " I don't know, tell me dear, is it three or four months that I have to live?", "I'm not sure dear, I think it's three." (Husband and wife in conversation.)

Their unsentimental acceptance of what had inevitably arrived became the basis for fascinating and humane conversation. Lenkiewicz noted:

"One may anticipate, but never fully experience death; it is in the nature of this anxiety that it can never be stimulated by a 'fully rounded' danger, as it is unlikely that there will be opportunity for 'postreflection'."

Throughout this project Lenkiewicz had done a great deal of reading on this theme and was frequently reminded of Walter Kaufmann's thesis that:

"Freedom from fear is a pipe dream as long as one fears death. "

Project 16: Sexual Behaviour

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

In 1983 Lenkiewicz exhibited Project 16. This project attempted to survey as wide a range as possible of human activities relating to sexual behaviour. He attempted to do this seriously without attention to the law. As the show was presented he was asked by the Council and the Police to warn visitors, "Local Authority regard this project as unsuitable for those under eighteen, this is not the painter's opinion". It seemed extraordinary to Lenkiewicz that sexual proclivities active all day and all night in the private lives of the complainees should become an issue in law. The policeman who removed a painting on masturbation admitted that he masturbated. The Council representative who restricted imagery connected with prostitution was friendly with the prostitutes. Heterosexual behaviour, homosexual behaviour, auto-erotic behaviour, bestiality, even necrophilia are commonplace in our society and most societies, and characterise more than 50% of all human entertainments. It is interesting that when the authorities visited the Exhibition to consider closure, the paedophilia section went entirely unnoticed. The local reaction to the project was of far greater interest and stimulation in Lenkiewicz's view than the project itself and much more revelatory.

The project attempted to demonstrate that there was no end to human creativity, that loneliness combined with human passion could animate a hoover to far more gratifying potentials than one's wife. The project seemed to indicate that all sexual behaviour was auto-erotic, from marriage partners to strangers' underwear. It seemed an inherent and terrible isolation lay just under the surface of some of the most powerful desires to consult with and connect to the world around us. Auto-erotic activity finds itself its own reward, such as it is. It has little to do with the subtler aspects of human relationships and claims for the credibility of 'the other'.

Project 17: Observations on Local Education

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"When we try to examine the mirror in itself we eventually detect nothing but the thing reflected by it. When we wish to grasp the things reflected, we touch nothing but the mirror. This is the general history of knowledge." The Dawn of Day; fourth book, 243. Nietzsche.

In 1988 Lenkiewicz exhibited 150 paintings on the theme of Education. There were over 500 sitters ranging from the Chief Education Officer to lavatory attendants. He edited two large volumes where each of the sitters wrote 1000 words or more on their feelings about education. These books were introduced by a series of observations written by Michael Duane, Headmaster of Rising Hill School in London. Duane was one of the few sitters with a deeply child-centred instinct. In different ways other sitters that Lenkiewicz had the privilege to work with; Dr. Reuven Feuerstein, Dora Russell, Colin Wilson, Ivor D. Eliot, shared this quality but it was rare. Lenkiewicz wrote:

"Education, as we experience it in 'civilised' societies, is primarily concerned with the linking of human behaviour to commercial enterprise ... the conscription character of schooling, the effects of isolation amongst large numbers of other people, examinations, and destructive forms of competition, are patterns of control. Sensuality, energy and amoral curiosity frighten the adult, and the adult will fear the child."

Some of the canvasses were huge; The Blind Leading the Blind, Caritas Romanus, Staff at The Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Straitjacketed Girls- former pupils, Public High for Girls, Ivor D. Eliot with a group of children at Ilfracombe School working with 'Philosophy for Children', Triptych: The Massacre of the Innocents (the left and right panels depicting Saint Vocation and Saint Myopia). One of the largest, The Deposition- The Burial of Education, based on Mahler's Songs on The Death of Children, shows the painter wrapped in a union jack, lowering a dying child in the format of E1 Greco's Burial of Count Orgaz. Lenkiewicz noted a conversation with an explorer who asked a young boy in the Amazon to point out his father from among the tribes people, the boy slapped the man's face and with offended passion said, "I belong to no-one, at this moment you are my father." Lenkiewicz writes,

"The young persons sensitivity to example is immeasurable. A parent or mentor whose creative life is passionless, dulled and uninspired, will have great difficulty in valuing themselves... We do not value another person by feeling superior or inferior to them. That is the straight road to fascism. That we may mean the young harm is a very unattractive thought, but refutation is tenuous when we observe our schooling procedures. "

He concluded his remarks in the catalogue to the Exhibition with the observation that:

"I barely recollect a moments depression in my life and I am certainly of an optimistic nature. The projects that I work on are academic surveys of aspects of human behaviour. They attempt to assimilate information impartially. Of the 17 large projects I have worked on in recent years, this one on the theme of Education has been the least salutary and the most sinister and depressing."

Project 18: The Painter With Women

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"Reflection does not concern itself with objects themselves with a view to deriving concepts from them directly, but it is the state of mind in which we first set ourselves to discover the subjective conditions under which we are able to arrive at concepts." Kant.

"In every relationship there are a minimum of six people... you; the person talking to you; the person you think you are; the person you think they are; the person they think they are and the person they think you are." Voltaire.

Lenkiewicz agreed to show three introductory sketch shows between 1990-1992 at two consecutive galleries managed by Francis Mallet on The Barbican. The fuller and articulated collection was presented at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham in 1994. The project received a great deal of attention, little of it intelligent. The three smaller exhibitions introduced some ideas paralleling the theme of the 'mirror' with that of the 'companion'. Lenkiewicz notes:

"Philosophers have been fascinated by (the formula of the reflection) for centuries. After Descartes we move away from straight forward considerations of objects towards the 'experience' in which objects are given. Self-reflection marks the human beings' rise to the rank of a subject . . . Narcissus is the first artist/man transfixed by a reflection. This project suggested that the 'other' is always oneself. Narcissus simply did not know that the watery reflection was his own; he wasted away in a reverie imagining that the object of his desire was outside himself."

The Exhibition took as its starting point the metaphor of 'The Folly of Wise Men'. The first of the three formulas the story of Aristotle and Phyllis, has nothing to do with the historical Aristotle. It originated as a piece of Medieval libel, a misogynistic formula for Passion riding Reason. The second of the formulas used the theme of 'The Temptation of St. Antony'. The life history of St. Antony, the Abbot of the Desert so often waylaid by devils and diabolical visions, frequently warns against the 'power of women'. He is an example of incorruptibility, resisting the 'great dust cloud of argument' that the enemy raises in his mind.

These images deal with wisdom and folly. Lenkiewicz uses the formulae as metaphors for the absurdity of regarding relationships beyond their aesthetic value. He writes:

"These formulae are so loaded and cross-referential that the visitor also must resist temptation. The work can be misunderstood. 'Patterns' of obsessive behaviour are what interest me - the form not the content."

Lenkiewicz's contention is that our attraction to people, objects, ideas, and belief systems are rooted in a common physiological impulse stemming from an entire aesthetic matrix.

"The assumption that we are empathic/concerned about the welfare of another person independently of our own needs, is like St. Antony's visions, hallucinatory."

The concept of the 'Double' is helpful here. Mirrors are abysses. As Lenkiewicz has written in one of his note books:

"To paint oneself is to paint the portrait of a man who is going to die. Relationships are mirrors. The painter looks into the mirror to paint himself; the lover looks into his lover to love himself. She sits on my lap, a reflection of my aesthetic addictions; a reflection in a reflection. The painter reflects upon the reflection. The woman reflects upon the painter reflected. I am thinking of your partner, Priest, or your spouse, Art Historian, and you, the one holding this catalogue with good humour or with irritation. I am thinking of 'that' person, you know the one. They could all be on my lap in these paintings. I am no longer young, less fit than I was and I still mean what I say. It is not me that annoys or threatens. It is the knowledge in the heads of my companions (my companions in arms), my doubles. And if your smile of recognition, your smile of humane resignation is the smile I hope it is; then you are my double too."

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Birmingham NEC Exhibition 1994

Project 19: Landscape

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

"Everything takes form, even infinity." Bachelard.

"A lake is the earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature." Thoreau.

In 1995 Lenkiewicz returned to an adolescent preoccupation - Landscape. In early youth he would stare out of the window from the bed he slept in, mesmerised as so many young people are, by the huge swathes of clouds mounted in the sky like a vast cathedral vault. It was difficult at that time to grasp that the sky ceiling was the largest dome on the planet, but one could certainly understand why clouds were called 'the thrones of gods'. A small exhibition of his at St. Martin's School of Art comprised of 20 drawings of steam, recorded from the trains at Paddington Station. Only in recent years has Lenkiewicz returned to working in isolation in woods or by a lake, where he planned a large project titled 'Landscape: The Painter as St. Jerome'. This project was intended as an enquiry into the relationship between natural forces and a single person. Forty of these paintings were shown at The Barbican Museum and Library Annexe. He wrote:

"In youth every window, every door opening framed the world outside. There were two kinds of space, the intimate space where I stood and the exterior space that one could believe expanded consciousness. The larger the space observed the more timeless, meditative, even exalted one could feel. Space has been termed a 'Psychological transcendent'. The larger the context in which we stand, the greater our solitude. Our eye eliminates boundaries, nothing contradicts; distance shuts off moral codes."

In student days when Lenkiewicz visited The National Gallery, which was frequently, he was struck by the images of St. Jerome, and in particular a small panel by Patinier. From the early 17th Century images of St. Jerome had developed into theatrically lit excuses for recording sinewed, taut and wasted elderly men - almost an illustration for medical students studying anatomy, of cadaverous musculature. Before this phase however, St. Jerome would be hard to find, as he sat lost in a vast, stony and desolate landscape traversing rivers, forests and mountain peaks. The clear purpose of such imagery was existential; man lost, missing, in a terrifying infinity. Man insignificant. Images like these are the stuff of tragedy; late Michelangelo, late Goya, late Rothko. Lenkiewicz wrote:

"All human enterprise seems to evaporate into the vapours that we inhale and exhale by seeing. Seeing is eating, our visual mouth can swallow universes, exhale the starry night. When we are moved we are filled. To be touched by things is to be made smaller, to be diminished. In one aesthetic mood we ride clouds and leapfrog oaks, in another we sleep beneath a leaf and nestle with insects. Space is a state of mind, agoraphobic and claustrophobic. We are strangely haunted by events that are innocent of themselves, we do not cry "Show off" to nature. We are silenced into meditative irony, diminished and expanded, an elastic perception of minutiae one moment and infinity the next. "

In future developments of this project Lenkiewicz intends to expand the themes of Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

Project 20: Addictive Behaviour

The following brief explanation was contained in the booklet produced to accompany a Retrospective of Lenkiewicz's work in 1997.

In 1996 Lenkiewicz embarked on the largest of all his projects to date. The theme is Addictive Behaviour. This project is an attempt to define and clarify the basic tenets that have run through the 19 previous projects. It is intended that Project 20 should consolidate clearly and simply the common issues. The Addiction project will be divided into eight sections: Section one will deal with conventionally socially recognised addictive scenarios, alcohol, drugs, gambling and eating disorders. Section two will represent the largest single addictive scenario experienced by the human race, cross culturally and at all ages - falling in love. This section will be the hub of the wheel of addictions. Section three will deal with theological persuasions. There are over 800 versions of Jesus culture in England alone, a considerable proportion of them in the South West. The fourth Section will deal with social and political convictions "I've voted Tory/Labour all my life" etc. Section five will look at the concept of the family, " I Love my little Billy but he'd better not play with dirty Johnny down the road." Children as property etc. Section six will look at the vast and cross-referential eccentricities of addictions and obsessive behaviours, from self-mutilation to collecting hosiery. Attitudes towards cars, houses, gardens, and other 'collecting' behaviours. Section seven will deal with creativity in relation to addiction. "I'm a writer/ poet/ painter/ actor/ dancer" etc. Finally, Lenkiewicz will conclude with section eight on Bibliomania. This project it is hoped, will involve 800 sitters, from the widest possible range of life experience. Each of the sitters has been asked to write a minimum of 1000 words on their circumstances and on their opinion as to what addiction is. By means of this project Lenkiewicz hopes to get closer to the physiological essentials that may cause 'fanatical belief system' behaviour and to explain the impulse that many of us have to subjugate private thought for mass thought, private responsibility for mass responsibility. He does not think there is a more appropriate line of enquiry than to consider the reasons why individuals and groups of people experience such a high failure rate in getting on with each other.

Project 21: Paintings Painted Blind - On The Theme Of Tobit

Blind Tobit: Paintings Painted Blind was exhibited in 2000 at the The Mission, the New Street Gallery, and then found a home at The Annexe.

Undertaken as a small experimental theme inspired by the Biblical character of Tobit and Lenkiewicz's research on blindness as a metaphor, it was later designated as Project 21. The paintings were done at a specially prepared studio in which the artist was able to paint blindfolded. The paint tins, brushes, canvases, etc., were laid out in precise locations, and the canvases were painted by 'feel' and 40 years of cunning painterly instinct. Robert claimed never to have seen the finished results until they were unveiled before the public for the first time.

Project 22: Still Lives II

This is currently a placeholder for information on Project 22.

It is understood that it was to be titled "Still Lives II". It is unclear whether any paintings were ever painted specifically for this Project.

Please edit this article to add any information that you have on this Project.

Project 23: Time

It is understood that this Project was to be titled "Time". It is unclear how many paintings were painted specifically for this Project.

One known example is Man Swallowing Time, which has written on the reverse - "Project 23, painting no. ?12".

There is believed to be at least one other painting marked for this Project.

Please edit this article to add any information that you have on this Project.

Project 24: The Harrowing of Hell

The Harrowing of Hell was never formally initiated as a Project. There were, however, various preparatory ideas and possibly some paintings.

Lenkiewicz began talking about his ideas for this project a few years before his death. It was apparently going to be a small project, one of a few that Lenkiewcz intended to work on once Project 20 was completed.

The paintings were going to be chiefly grisailles.

It is believed that the first painting intended for this project may have been produced as early as 1993, It was a large tryptich featuring Lenkiewicz sitting cross-legged on the floor, painted in grisaille with swirling masses of white cloth above him which spread onto the left and right panels.

There were a small number of paintings found in a private studio after Lenkiewicz's death which looked like they could have been part of this theme.

It is possible that some of the preparatory thought and work for The Harrowing of Hell might have informed the Blind Tobit Project.

Use of Colour

This is a placeholder for information on Lenkiewicz's use of colour.

Quote from Nakem Shoa in 2006:

"For me Lenkiewic's greatest contribution to figurative painting is his deep and penetrating research into colour: not in a pigment sense, but in the way he translates the retinal experience onto canvas. His unmatched ability to break down tone and colour into a huge range of shades and hues allowed him to push his colour to a great richness of hue and yet still stay in the boundaries of the way the eyes see.

There is no other figurative painter who works directly in front of the model that has reached his brilliant use of colour."

Please edit this article if you have information on Lenkiewicz's use of colour.

Use of Light and Shade

This is a placeholder for information on Lenkiewicz's use of light and shade in his paintings.

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Use of Texture

This is a placeholder for information on Lenkiewicz's use of texture.

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Canvas

This is currently a placeholder for information on the types of canvas that Lenkiewicz used and how they were prepared.

Types of canvas

Dependent upon the state of Lenkiewicz's finances at the time, but most commonly a standard canvas?

Priming

The canvasses were primed with diluted black masonry paint?

Stretching

Stretched and stapled to wooden frames?

Please edit this article to provide additional information. 

Frames

Lenkiewicz generally had mouldings made up to his own design by a local joiner. These were produced in abundant lengths which were then mitred and assembled at the studio by Billy (surname?).

Various profiles were used over the years, generally getting wider and wider over time. Lenkiewicz would draw the desired profile on paper, the joiner would then recreate that shape in steel for use in his tooling machinery.

They were usually made from tulip wood and had a satin black finish.

Lenkiewicz is said to have liked the way the light caught the grooves, and liked the way the heavy blackness cut the picture off from its environment.

Please edit this article to add any information that you have.

Palette

Paint was mostly oil, Windsor & Newton (artist quality when funds allowed).

Robert Lenkiewicz was very particular about the order in which the paints were arranged on the palette. This was, from left to right, as follows:

• White (usually Titanium)
• Naples Yellow
• Yellow Ochre
• Raw Sienna
• Terre Verte
• Burnt Sienna (or Indian Red or Venetian Red)
• Rose Madder Quinacridone
• Alizarin Crimson
• Ultramarine Blue
• Dioxazine Purple
• Raw Umber
• Black

So, this standard palette was added to depending on the individual requirements of each painting. He would use many other colours making use of whatever was to hand.

Most frequently used: Cadmium yellows, cadmium reds, pthalo green, viridian, cobalt blue, cerulean, pthalo blue, burnt umber. The paints tended to be student quality eg. Rowney Georgian and Windsor & Newton Winton.

Palettes were usually pieces of hardboard painted black to correspond with the canvasses which were primed black. These were used at most two or three times for consecutive sittings and then discarded.
Of course this wasn’t always the case. At times canvasses were primed white or tinted brown as is discernible from earlier unfinished works. I knew Robert for almost 30 years and during that time his palette did not vary a great deal. However what did vary was the way in which he used those colours.

Coding System

This is currently a placeholder for information about the coloured symbols that can often be found on the reverse of Lenkiewicz paintings.

This was a coding system used by Lenkiewicz to indicate certain things about a work.

The most commonly used symbol is a triangle, in a number of diffferent colours and possibly with an accompanying marking such as underlining.

Please edit this article if you have more definitive information.

The concept of aesthetic fascism

Robert Lenkiewicz formulated the idea of aesthetic fascism to encapsulate his ideas about what happens when we form an attraction so strong towards another person that we tend to treat them as property.

It grew out of his observation of the behaviour of the street alcoholics and addicts who often appear in his paintings, people who “would cut your throat for another drink”, as he put it. Lenkiewicz noticed the deep similarity between this “addictive scenario” and what he called “the falling in love experience”. In evidence, he offered the traumatic experience of jealousy, which he regarded as being identical to the kind of withdrawal symptoms felt by addicts deprived of their drug of choice.

He noticed that the obsessive fascination with the beloved person could often lead to acts of ruthlessness and violence. “I often feel,” he said, “that in the most intense romantic scenarios… there is an undertone of ruthless psychopathic expectation, a curious heartlessness. If one had genuine concern for one’s partner then the first thing one would do is leave them.” He was sceptical about claims that in love one ‘cared’ about the other person in a selfless sense, quoting the German philosopher Nietzsche’s pithy expression: “How nicely does doggish lust beg a piece of spirit when a piece of flesh is denied it.”

He used the term ‘aesthetic’ to distinguish his idea from psychological or moral theories of behaviour. He believed we were drawn to people because of an innate physical propensity to become intoxicated or entranced “by sensations linking to desire, attraction and jealousy”. Lenkiewicz was unconvinced that such attractions even had much to do with any objective qualities possessed by the other person. “A portcullis has come down at the first glance between yourself and the other and one’s relationship is with that portcullis… one’s own aesthetic vulnerability. Some people are more or less addicted to that aesthetic vulnerability, but believe themselves to be addicted to the other person.” He regarded this as a physiological mechanism; a system of pleasure/pain inbuilt in the human body. He was fascinated by the fact that the visceral, gut feelings reported by jilted lovers, withdrawing addicts or fanatics whose beliefs were threatened, were almost invariably described in exactly the same terms.

In this context, Lenkiewicz was employing the common definition of ‘fascism’ as the tendency to deny fully human status to certain kinds of people and to exalt specific others. He felt that “the aesthetic fascism involved in saying ‘I fancy that person; I’m attracted to that person’ is quite often made of pretty unattractive stuff.” This proclivity to focus exclusively on a particular individual struck him as the dark mirror image of the fascistic impulse to persecute the stranger or outsider. Lenkiewicz was therefore very sympathetic with attempts to locate the origins of Fascism (capital F for the political phenomenon) in the physiology of the individual rather than in materialist or economic causes - 'The Mass Psychology of Fascism' by Wilhelm Reich was an important text for him.

Lenkiewicz argued that the same aesthetic mechanism was at work in our devotion to philosophical, ethical or ideological convictions. For him it was not a question of right or wrong, what he called “the moral squint”, or even of compelling evidence of truth, but of the relative strength of our attraction to one idea or another. He scarcely accepted therefore that people’s convictions could be changed by rational argument, observing that we seldom have good reasons for holding the beliefs we do.

His magnificent private library provided ample evidence of the extraordinary capacity humans have for self-delusion in thrall to fanatical belief systems. The sections on alchemy or the 16th & 17th century witch burning craze showed how the most acute intelligences of the period could hold the most insane beliefs, and be prepared to kill (or die) for them. All too often, certainty precedes atrocity. If that seemed historically remote, he could point to incidents like the disastrous FBI assault on the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas; “one fanatical belief system wiping out another”.

The tenor of Lenkiewicz’ ideas—many people thought them cold-hearted or cynical—seemed inconsistent with his amiability and generosity. Surely there was some sort of moral principle in play? He would have none of that. For him it was just a matter of being “attracted to a certain aesthetic package” that inlcuded humane treatment of less advantaged people. He was sympathetic to talk of human rights or the dignity of life but regarded such ideas as “beautiful metaphors, poetry”.

Lenkieiwcz believed that a re-evaluation of human behaviour in aesthetic and physiological terms would inevitably aid us in “enjoying life without making a nuisance of ourselves.” Our attraction towards an idea or system of belief doesn’t make it right and nor do our attractions for other people oblige them to respond to our feelings or grant us rights over them. “Once one establishes that it is an aesthetic experience one is undergoing and not something else, then a number of behaviour patterns which lead to obsessive or fanatical behaviour could evaporate.”

Witchcraft and the Occult

This is currently a placeholder for information about Lenkiewicz's interest in mysticism, Kabbala, magic ritual, witchcraft and the occult.

Please edit this article to add any information you think would be of interest and is appropriate.

1980 Retrospective: Blackfriar's Gallery

This is the exhibition list from Robert Lenkiewicz's small retrospective in 1980 held at Blackfriar's Gallery. It is interesting for the claims the artist makes for the scale of the projects already completed; claims which seem to be at variance with the actual exhibition lists posted elsewhere on this site:

RETROSPECTIVE
PAINTINGS: R. 0. LENIKIEWICZ SELECTED from TWELVE PROJECTS on the RELATIONSHIP SERIES also: Work between the ages of 14-23.

BLACKFRIARS GALLERY
58, SOUTHSIDE STREET, BARBICAN. PLYMOUTH
8TH - 27TH September

This collection is a small selection of works from a large number of paintings on a series of projects. The series consist of 16 sections on relationships. All the themes are inter-related. They involve an aesthetic theory of a subjective nature which has pre-occupied the painter for some years. He has written a large number of notes on this aspect. Regrettably they cannot be exhibited here.

The exhibitions presented in this city so far have been:

• VAGRANCY.
• DEATH AND THE MAIDEN.
• MENTAL HANDICAP.
• PAINTINGS DESIGNED TO MAKE MONEY.
• LOVE AND ROMANCE.
• JEALOUSY.
• LOVE AND MEDIOCRITY.
• ORGASM
• SELF-PORTRAIT.
• OLD-AGE.
• GOSSIP ON THE BARBICAN.
• SUICIDE.

(These last two themes are on display now at the painters studio around the corner.)

Selection from early work
1. Views from Mill Lane bridge: 14-15 years.
2. Studies of chickens. 14 years.
3. Still-life. 14-15 years.
4. Self-portraits. 14-15 years.
5. Self-portrait. 15-16 years.
6. Self-portrait with Punch magazine: 17 years old.
7. Plants in candle-light. 14-15 years.
8. Ivorine in white on white bed. 16 years.
9. Letterbox at night. 14-15 years.
10. Old Mrs Webber. 14-15 years.

Selection from 150 paintings on the theme: DEATH AND THE MAIDEN.
11. Death presenting Peace to the Maiden. £200
12. The Putrefaction of Diogenes. NFS
13. One of the Three Magi presenting his entrails to the child. £300.

Selection from 120 paintings on the theme: ORGASM
14. Woman forcing Pleasure. NFS
15. Man and Woman coupling. £110

A small selection of Orgasm studies are in the rack close by. PLEASE be careful with the studies.

Selection from 110 paintings on the theme: SELF-PORTRAIT
16. Self-portrait with Mephistopheles. NFS
17. Self-portrait with Eliza-in white. NFS
18. Self-portrait with Ruti. £500
19. Self-portrait with Eliza. NFS

Selection from 200 paintings on the theme: JEALOUSY
20. Woman walking away. NFS
21. Woman walking away. NFS
22. Jealous lover with flower. £150
23. Man holding woman’s dress watching her walk away. £350

A small selection of Jealousy studies are in the rack near by. PLEASE handle them with care.
24. Self-portrait with Amelie NFS
25. Study for Orgasm theme. NFS
26. Study for Love & Romance them.. NFS
27. Man watching himself with Mary. £160
28. Rembrandt, me and Hendrijke Stoppels. £ 95

Selection from 500 paintings on the theme: MENTAL HANDICAP
29. Small-growth person and girl with Cerebral Palsy. NFS
30. George Fallick £200
31. Mrs Dempster and child. NFS

A small selection of Mental Handicap studies are in the rack nearby. PLEASE these pieces with care.
32. Portrait of the painter’s dead mother. NFS

Selection from 100 paintings on the theme: OLD AGE
33. Old Ken. NFS
34. “Diogenes;” the painter’s assistant. NFS
35. Old gentleman of nearby Community Centre.
36. Old ladies of nearby Community Centre.

These two studies are puns on the (Regenten & Regentessen) ‘Alma House’ paintings by Frans Hals painted in 1664, when he was 82 years old - now in the Municipal Museum at Haarlem.

A small selection of Old Age studies are in a rack nearby. PLEASE handle with care.
37. Self-portrait dead. This piece is related to a number of ‘Pieta’ formulae. A large series of notes in the painter’s possession detail the associations.
38. Self-portrait with two Teddy-boys. £600
39. Schlemile. £500
40. Fragment from exact scale pun on THE NIGHT WATCH by Rembrandt. Instead of Captain Banning Coque and Willem van Reutenburgh - The figures from left to right are: Hans de Rijke; Chief Physiotherapist, Trengwealh Centre, Viv Sloaman; Ron Moore, headmaster at Millford School; Dr David Owen shortly before he became Foreign Secretary; Kim Ashly, director of a skills centre, and “Cockney Jim”, local nuisance. The painting was the centre-piece for the Mental Handicap exhibition, and has now been cut to a third of its original size.
41. Woman in blue with wool.
(This piece was commenced at the age of 18 yearn, and worked on periodically for six years. It is the only piece in the exhibition that the painter is tolerably diposed towards.)
42. Self-portrait. NFS
43. Lelya with Pesalino’s Saints. NFS [One of 100 paintings on the theme Love & Romance.]
44. Self-portrait. NFS
45. Self-portrait with lover. NFS
46. Man and Woman - pencil Study. £ 60
47. Self-portrait with Mary.
48. Old Lady of 106 years. £140
49. Old man-young woman with reflections NFS
50. Frank. £100
51. ‘Whistling Taffy’. £100
52. Albert Ernest Edward Fisher: known as ‘The Bishop’. NFS
53. Ruti and Laila. NFS
54. Please don’t leave. (From Jealousy theme: see upstairs) NFS
55. Self-portrait-three stages/(after Titian) £250
56. Self-portrait. NFS
57. Self-portrait. NFS
58. Monca with Jan. NFS
59. Eliza in flowered dress. £500
60. Eliza in pink dress. NFS

Note: The next exhibition in the series will be: THE PAINTER WITH MARY: A study of Obsessional Behavior.

At The Edge

Exhibition Notes

at the edge
Works by R.O.Lenkiewicz
1941-2002

30th September – 18th November 2007
Hartlepool Art Gallery

29th November – 27th January 2008
Novas Gallery, London

INTRODUCTION

The ideas that underline this exhibition … at the edge … stretch back to the late 1960's and to the themed exhibitions that Robert Lenkiewicz began to organise in Plymouth in 1973.

We are seeking to show work that we hope will demonstrate Lenkiewicz's skill and humanity but will also -when seen together- create within you an aesthetic response that will have staying power. This is a themed show, in the Lenkiewicz ‘mold’ but is not of course an original Lenkiewicz theme. We hope this exhibition will stretch the imagination of those attend in a way that Lenkiewicz himself would have hoped to do.

This is a new project; we can’t reconstruct one of the original collections (which he called projects) so we are generating the first post-Lenkiewicz project showing work from several of the original projects but all touching on one of his 'meta-themes', that of social enquiry. We think that this is a legitimate ‘stretch’ from his mode of presenting his work because he himself moved work between related themes, putting the same piece in different projects if he felt like it. We could explore any of the many aspects within his work but we have chosen this orientation, because we feel it resonates with his objectives.

We want to “provoke thought” (a favourite Lenkiewicz expression and undoubtedly one of his objectives) and have sought to select pieces that collectively and individually will achieve this.

Why ‘at the edge’? We wanted to illuminate Lenkiewicz’ over-arching interest in people who are in extremis, or at critical moments in life, or suffering acute degrees of isolation for one reason or another. At such times human beings may feel very alive but may also be near to death or very excluded from the world that surrounds them. A paradox.

Lenkiewicz didn’t see the projects as tools of social change but in a sense they were. As a figurative painter of social themes, an accessible even obsessive chronicler in a time of change, Lenkiewicz in far away Plymouth has a lot to show us about the tectonic shifts that have occurred in our social fabric. Not oblivious to the tide of conceptual work that has engulfed the art world since he left London, but not swayed by it either, he used traditional painterly skills to open the eyes of the onlooker.

BACKGROUND

Robert Lenkiewicz was born in north London in 1941. His parents fled to England from Germany just before the war. They met and married in London. As with many other German Jews who came as refugees to London, few members of their extended family survived the war.

They set up a small hotel in Cricklewood. The three Lenkiewicz boys grew up there, surrounded by elderly Jewish residents of the hotel, some of whom were themselves refugees from the holocaust. Lenkiewicz’s early memories were of the often elderly and distressed, sometimes demented people who made their home at the hotel. Thus he experienced at first hand and at a young and impressionable age the impact that dispossession and violent prejudice could have on people. Did his compassion and patience with the ‘excluded’ start here? Maybe.

From his own account, he had a difficult relationship with his mother who doted on him but was also very controlling. As soon as he could, he lived most of his life privately, either in his room or out in the streets. He began to paint at an early age -encouraged by his mother- and, when his precocity was recognized, he was sent to the Christopher Wren School aged 13 or 14. From there he went to St. Martins in London and then to The Royal Academy School.

From the outset, Lenkiewicz “painted a thing to look like a thing”. He proceeded along a pathway of figurative painting, looking sideways, as he says, at “all the other stuff that was going on” but somehow not attracted to it for himself … no matter how interested he was in it. Really he was an autodidact with regard to painting, despite the art school training. Similarly, although he was attracted to knowledge and profoundly respected scholarship he didn’t benefit much from being taught directly. His teachers, he says, were the paintings in The National Gallery & the books in his library. Plymouth University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in 2000.

Parallel with his painting life, and from an early age, Lenkiewicz begun to undertake private study & research and to collect the books that he needed to satisfy his incessant curiosity and his obsessive bibliophilia. The two deep loves, painting and the creation of the library that together so profoundly formed his life, were deeply rooted within him by the time he was 17. He was of course by that time also very preoccupied with women.

Lenkiewicz had left home by the time he was 18 (after a final row with his mother) and was living in a series of chaotic lodgings and studios around Hampstead. He was by now living pretty much at the edge himself: often penniless, painting gigantic canvasses on odd canvasses, getting slung out of various rooms by landlords and mixing with difficult people. Life was hard but very stimulating and he was supported mostly by his mother and by girlfriends.

Then, in 1965, quite abruptly, he left London with his young wife and their baby daughter and went to the West Country where he eventually settled in Plymouth. A new stage in his life was about to begin.

In Plymouth, Lenkiewicz lived a life that, by all accounts, remained impoverished and chaotic. He was still intensively involved with people who the world would describe as ‘down and outs’. He had no means to support himself & his dependants. Knowing the value of antiquarian books, he took some from the City Library’s Cottonian Collection and sold them in order to raise money. He was arrested in 1970 for stealing books and imprisoned briefly. This experience may well have been some sort of a trigger for him; he would have been confronted with the need to change.

By then a large collection of paintings was accumulating in his small Barbican studio and his multi-layered ideas about the people he was painting suddenly crystallised into the notion of having a huge exhibition.

Lenkiewicz would frequently say that he had “no interest in issues of high art” and he would completely decry any altruistic impulses. His motives in setting up this first major exhibition were complex. He certainly wanted to draw attention to these people (who he called Vagrants) and to issues that confronted them … but he would not have been unaware of the possibilities for attracting attention to the work itself, and to the possibility of selling it. He described the Vagrancy Exhibition as a sociological survey rather than an exhibition of paintings and wanted the works to be seen ‘en masse’ rather than as individual pieces. He dismissed the idea of ‘art’, preferring to cloak himself in the role of researcher.

The Vagrancy exhibition, held in Plymouth in 1973, attracted no critical attention but did have a significant impact in Plymouth. It also made him realize that he had found a way of creating a lot of interest and provoking thought, albeit only locally. He had discovered that he could run a large attractive exhibition that ordinary people would visit and he saw that commentators & critics from the ‘high art world’ would not. He realized he should control the whole presentation process himself, show the work in his own premises and go his own way.

The idea of making work for specific projects took shape; the projects became very much about “presenting information” and also, crucially, he saw the exhibition as an entity i.e. the individual pieces were subordinate to the whole. This began to impact on the way he painted and on the things he painted and his work became increasingly driven by the ideas contained within the research areas. Similarly “the projects”, as he was now calling them, began to impact on his book collecting. This recursive relationship took root and people who knew him and discussed his ideas with him will have heard him expounding on this many times.  This way of being, as painter/researcher, was to shape the rest of his life.

The Work

Lenkiewicz was a master draughtsman and, as a painter, was also profoundly involved with the people he painted. You need only to look at ‘Kevin Gasson’ (below) to see Lenkiewicz as painter and humanist.

The work that you see above was part of the ‘Mental Handicap’ project that included more than a hundred studies that Lenkiewicz made between 1974 & 1976 and exhibited in a major exhibition in 1976. Never forget when looking at each piece that it is a part of a whole. He wanted projects to be seen in their entirety and for the visitor to feel provoked by the mass of pieces that collectively created the impact he wanted.

As a draughtsman, Lenkiewicz’s particular mastery of portraiture is evident from the paintings and drawings that you see here. He often asks us to concentrate on the head, sometimes even right in on the gaze but he provides us with enough scaffolding in the way he shapes the body and sets the context so that we can be aware of the focus of the piece in its entirety. His assured touch with the human body, evident particularly in the exquisitely sensitive drawings, astonish the eye and always make us aware of the subtleties of the form he has created.

When considering his remarkable technical abilities –he describes himself as “the best bad painter I know”- it is tempting to dismiss the work as facile but the distinctive Lenkiewicz style that connects painter to sitter to viewer in a sweep of emotional intensity and a flurry of painterly strokes belies this judgment.

The large paintings are truly extraordinary. Very few painters have the ability to handle large groups quite as convincingly as Robert Lenkiewicz and it’s not an easy thing to do. These paintings can masquerade as narrative pieces or even as morality tales but this is to misread them. They are often focal points for a project and as such comprise part of the whole but they are always foci for the painter himself … to relish the pleasure of creating a large feast of paint.

His use of colour is remarkable; it never distracts us from form but enhances our understanding. Sometimes we are drawn in by it, experiencing the close proximity of the sitter. Sometimes a muting of tones provides what feels like space to reflect.  In this exhibition you can see his palette changing through the decades and you can see his handling of paint making us aware of the humanity of the person who is being portrayed.

The work in ‘at the edge’ crosses six Lenkiewicz projects, three decades, a variety of media and a medley of styles. We hope, nonetheless, that we have successfully made a selection of pieces that will move you, illuminate ideas and provoke thought in a way that parallels the painter’s practice.

Works featured in at the edge:

• The Death Bed
• Diogenes & Belle at prayer
• Head of John Kynance: Death Bed
• Reuben jacking up
• Dead Mother
• Vagrancy study
• Vagrancy study: preparatory study for Christmas at the bus station
• Two ladies in Old People's Home
• Anita & Julie Rabey with their mother
• Seated man. Glasses and purple jacket
• Death and the maiden
• Monica on the bed
• Diogenes and the Bishop(naked)
• Bishop startled
• John Kynance: Death bed: study
• Harmonica Jim & Diogenes. Back studies
• Lewis John Munford
• Man presenting his entrails
• Mr Fisher paying as little attention as is possible under the circumstances to death
• Mr Fisher with a bottle of Strongbow
• Mr Fisher having a conversation with death
• Man in a patterned
• Kevin Gasson
• Bearded man
• Man with grey hair and glasses
• Study of Cyril - Cornish Tramp
• Study of child
• Diogenes on Barbican
• Study of 'Jesus'
• Man in a hat
• Man in a white shirt on a chair
• Les just out of prison (in bowler hat)
• The Bishop, Diogenes, Les Ryder asleep in Jacob's Ladder
• Barbican boys.

Thanks to…

• The Lenkiewicz Foundation, The Novas group, Hartlepool City Museum,
• the Executor of the Lenkiewicz Estate and all those who have lent work.

Annie Hill-Smith, July 2007

Birmingham NEC 1994

This consisted of 2 parts - 77 paintings forming a RETROSPECTIVE SECTION (all taken from previous exhibitions) and 105 paintings forming THE PAINTER WITH WOMEN - Observations on the Theme of the Double.

EARLY WORKS.
1. The bridge at Mill Lane, studies.
2. Self-portrait, sixteen years.
3. Interior.
4. Study of Irene.

Project 1. VAGRANCY.
5. Mr Albert Edward Earnest Fisher (‘The Bishop’).
6. Plymouth mourning over its unfortunates.
7. ‘Diogenes’ and Belle kneeling behind two chairs.
8. The burial of Mr John Kymance.
9. Mr John Kymance one week before death.
10. ‘Cockney Jim’ and company at the bus station Christmas Day dinner.

Project 2. MENTAL HANDICAP.
11. George - study.

Project 3. DEATH AND THE MAIDEN
12. Death presenting peace to the maiden.
13. Diogenese “Double”.

Project 8. JEALOUSY.
14. Woman with jealous lover.
15. Her previous boyfriend disguised as a curtain watching her with the new one.
16. Man and woman screaming at memories in the dark.
17. Man holding woman’s dress, watching her walk away.
18. Man watching woman walk away.
19. Lover with memories.

Project 10. SELF-PORTRAIT.
20. Self-portrait.
21. Self-portrait (owner declined to lend).
22. Self-portrait with Eliza.
23. Self-portrait with self-portrait at ninety.
24. The painter with two sons.

Project 11. OLD AGE.
25. Old men of the Almshome.
26. Old women of the Almshome.

Project 12. SUICIDE.
27. Man in a knot by the straight back of a woman.
28. Man separating from her.
29. Man killing himself.
30. Man cutting himself.
31. Man killing himself with forgetting her.
32. Leyla waiting - Amsterdam.
33. Monca.
34. Man in a boat.

Project 13. STILL LIVES.
35. Chairs.
36. John Pollex with plate.

Project 14. THE PAINTER WITH MARY.
37. Study on the train from London after Rome.
38. The Painter with Mary in “Piermasters” restaurant accompanied by the Painter with Mary.
39. The Painter with Mary in newspaper Magi-Fools hats.
40. The Painter with Mary hold tightly as they make love with their own selves - aesthetic note.
41. Man watching his empty hand during the caress - aesthetic note.
42. The claw moves in the stomach as she leaves - aesthetic note.
43. The “line of thought” manufacturers fear - aesthetic note.
44. Red, blue and yellow lover meeting - aesthetic note.
45. Self-portrait with Mary with newspaper in her hair.
46. Lovers.
47. The resurrection of Mary - aesthetic note.

Project 15. DEATH.
48. The Painter’s mother.
49. Myriam with paper mask.
50. The Painter’s death bed with children and women.
51. Yana with paper mask.
52. Mr Earl senior, of Earl of Plymouth Funeral Service, employees and family.
53. The anatomy lesson of Dr Hunt.
54. Dr Sheila A Cassidy: medical director.
55. The father eats the son.
56. Lovers decaying.
57. Lovers calling to each other.

Project 16. SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR.
58. The Painter taking the pulse of his son, Reuben.
59. Dr Hummel with client.
60. The Painter with goat.
61. Moira with Wolfe.
62. Mr Harry’s club.
63. Child lying down.
64. Marie and Kimber / gender exchange.
65. The Rape / the mocking of Christ by the five senses.
66. Two headed necrophiliac.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEM
67. Design for stained glass window (originally 71ft span). Part of the mural design on the theme of The Last Judgement of the Barbican.
Project 17. OBSERVATIONS ON LOCAL EDUCATION.
68. The Deposition - the Burial of Education.
69. Staff at the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery.
70. Antonia Melvyn, former Plymouth Welfare Information Project Co-ordinator.
71. Syd sniffing glue.
72. Tryptytch. The Massacre of the Innocents.
73. M E Caddy, Headteacher.
74. Dr P A H Seymour, Principal Lecturer in Astronomy and Director of the William Day planetarium.
75. The Fight / Barbican boys.
76. Dora Russell, campaigner for peace, women’s rights, author and traveller.
77. Wolfe painting.

THE PAINTER WITH WOMEN - Observations on the Theme of the Double.
78. The painter with Karen. St Antony theme.
79. The painter with Anna. St Antony theme.
80. Karen on the bed. Daemon series.
81. The painter with Ester. Aristotle and Phyllis theme.
82. The painter with Anna. St Antony theme.
83. The painter with Greenie. St Antony theme. (Work in progress).
84. Esther seated. St Antony theme.
85. The painter with Esther. St Antony theme.
86. Esther seated. Deamon series.
87. Esther seated. Deamon series.
88. Esther on floor. Daemon series.
89. Anna on floor. Daemon series.
90. Anna seated. Daemon series.
91. The painter with Patti. St Antony theme.
92. Self-portrait with balnket. St Antony theme.
93. The painter with Lindsay. St Antony theme. £15000
94. Roxana seated. Daemon series.
95. The painter with Lisa. St Antony theme.
96. The painter with Lindsay. St Antony theme.
97. The painter with Louise. St Antony theme.
98. Louise standing. Daemon series.
99. The painter with Janine. Daemon series.
100. The painter with Janine. Daemon series.
101. The painter with Bianca. St Antony theme. £5500
102. The painter with Yana. St Antony theme. £19500
103. The painter with Karen. St Antony theme. (Work in progress).
104. The painter with Patti. St Antony theme. (Work in progress).
105. The painter with Benedikte. St Antony theme.
106. The apinter with Patti. Daemon series. £10500
107. The painter with karen. Aristotle and Phyllis theme.
108. The painter with Reuben and Monca. St Antony theme.
109. Roxana on the bed. Daemon series. £8500
110. Self-portrait in white, listening. St Antony theme. £25000
111. The painter with Esther. Aristotle and Phyllis theme. £17000
112. Anna on the bed. Daemon series. £6500
113. Anna on the carpet. Daemon series. £6500
114. Lisa on the floor. Deaemon series. £6500
115. Self-portrait with cloven hoof. St Antony theme. £11000
116. The painter with Roxana. St Antony theme. £11000
117. St Antony embracing demon. £7500
118. Lisa standing. St Antony theme. £7000
119. St Antony with pillow. £8500
120. The painter with Lisa. Aristotle and Phyllis theme. £24000
121. The painter with Patti. Aristotle and Phyllis theme. £16000
122. Triple self-portrait. St Antony theme. £9500
123. The painter with Anna. St Antony theme. £25000
124. The painter with Esther. Daemon series. £12500
125. The painter with Esther. Aristotle and Phyllis theme. £14000
126. Megan and Isaac on the bed. Daemon series. £19500
127. The painter with Roxana. Daemon series. £17500
128. The painter with Esther. Aristotle and Phyllis theme. £25000
129. Karen on the floor. Daemon series. £16000
130. The painter with Lisa. Samson and Delilah. £13000
131. The painter with Megan. Daemon series. £15500
132. The painter with Anna. St Antony theme. £13000
133. Anna seated. St Antony theme. £6500
134. Anna seated. St Antony theme. £9500
135. Patti on floor. Daemon series. £14500
136. The painter with Lorna. St Antony theme. £6500
137. The painter with Lorna. St Antony theme. £12500
138. The painter with Esther. Daemon series. £11000
139. Lisa standing. Daemon series. £12500
140. The painter with Anna. Aristotle and Phyllis theme. £12500
141. The painter with Joanna. St Antony theme. £12500
142. The painter with Joanna. Aristotle and Phyllis theme. £16000
143. The painter with Karen. Aristotle and Phyllis theme. (Work in progress).
144. The painter with Suzanna. St Antony theme. £9000
145. THe painter with Esther. St Antony theme. (Work in progress).
146. The painter with Karen on the bed. Daemon series. (Work in progress). £25000
147. The painter with Ann. St Antony theme. £8000
148. Roxana on floor. Daemon series. £9500
149. The painter with Esther. St Antony theme. £14500
150. The temptation of St Antony. (Work in progress). £P.O.A
151. The painter with Karen. Aristotle and Phyllis theme.
152. Angela seated. Daemon series.
153. The painter with Anna. St Antony theme. (Work in progress).
154. St Antony with Demons. Grissaille. (Work in progress).
155. Patti on floor. Daemon series. (Work in progress). £7500
156. The painter with Janine. St Antony theme. (Unfinished). £13500
157. The painter with Greenie. St Antony theme. £5500
158. The painter with Greenie. St Antony theme. £12500
159. Karen standing. Samson and Delilah.
160. The painter with Roxana. Daemon series.
161. The painter with Patti. Daemon series. (Work in progress). £14000
162. The painter with Jennifer. St Antony theme. (Work in progress).
163. Self-portrait in hospital. Grisaille. St Antony theme. £6500
164. Rear view of a woman. Daemon series. £6500
165. Esther seated. Daemon series.
166. Anna with fire. Daemon series. £6000
167. Karen and Thais. St Antony theme. £15000
168. The painter with Ria. St Antony theme. £6500
169. Roxana seated. Daemon series.
170. Lisa on floor. Daemon series.
171. The painter with Lucy. St Antony theme.
172. Self-portrait, St Antony listening. (Work in progress).
173. The painter with Anna. St Antony theme.
174. St Antony’s Desert.
175. St Antony with stigmata.
176. Lisa painting. St Antony theme.
177. Lisa painting. St Antony theme.
178. The painter with Esther. St Antony theme.
179. The painter with Lizzie. St Antony theme. £12000
180. The Dance. St Antony theme. (Work in progress).
181. The painter with Elaine. St Antony theme.
182. Esther laying down. Daemon series.

Bella Napoli Restaurant

Fragments of a mural remain at the Bella Napoli restaurant 41 - 42 Southside St., The Barbican. Painted in 1969 this varnished, oil on paper mural on the theme of Oliver Twist would have measured approx. 2.2m x 4.0m (including the door to the kitchen placed in the middle).  Two sections remain, the largest features Nancy, the other, Oliver Twist. The missing section was concerned with three street urchins.   Shortly before his death Robert expressed a wish to restore the mural.  Some film footage was taken by regional TV circa 1997.

Devonport Mural

The mural entitled  'The Ascention Into Heaven' was painted on the gable end of a house at the junction of Cornwall Street and Cannon Street. Unveiled in August 1988 by the Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Gordon Draper. It featured 100 local residents, headed by their MP, David Owen, ascending into heaven. The mural was created primarily as a colourful decorative feature that would help to raise the spirits of a local community with significant social problems. Lenkiewicz agreed to paint the mural for free after being approached by the local Tenant's Association.

The mural together with surrounding buildings has now been destroyed to make way for substantial redevelopment of the area.

Mayflower Cinema

During the afternoon of Saturday May 2nd 1970, Dame Joan Vickers MP officially renamed the State cinema at St. Budeaux as The Mayflower.   The idea for the change of name came from the cinema's manager, Mr. Prynne Richards, and the ceremony took place on the day that the 'Mayfower Year' celebrations were launched.  The cinema was stated to seat 935.  On display at the opening was a 50' x 15' mural in oils by 28 year old artist Robert Lenkiewicz. It depicted in great detail the final landing of the pilgrim fathers at Plymouth Rock.   On Saturday March 3rd 1973 the Mayflower closed.

From 'Plymouth's Cinemas' by Brian Mosely.                                            

New Hoe Summer Theatre

The prefabricated structure of The New Hoe Summer Theatre replaced the marqee known as The Hoe Theatre which had been in place since the 1950's. The new building held it's first production on June 8th 1962 and it's last on February 14th 1982.  Demolition started on May 18th and took about six weeks. During this process one of Robert Lenkiewicz's murals was found. It had been wallpapered over, but builders managed to save part of it.  Originally painted in 1970, it appears to have been unfinished in 1976 when Robert made these comments to the local press -   "It is a history of the harleqinade from about 1580 to about 1860, a survey of the Italian Comedia del Arte.  As usual, I selected models who live locally to represent various characters in the Harleqinade.  It will take about two days work to finish and I am quite willing to complete it as soon as I have the time."

The mural highlighted the controversy surrounding Lenkiewicz and his work at that time. To quote Mr. Brian Rabin from a meeting of the Plymouth Junior Chamber Of Commerce in 1976  -  " It appals me that our civic leaders can frequent the Hoe Theatre without throwing up their hands in horror.  The mural on the wall of the foyer shows people putting out their tongues and using Churchillian gestures.  We should try to get it whitewashed and restored to order.  It's our theatre and this is just an obscene gesture to the people of Plymouth.  And when will it be finished?  We should invite vandals to come and scrawl on it."

In 1978 the mural measuring either 40 or 60ft x 10ft, which the artist had spent four months painting was obliterated when the council decided to have the wall repapered. At the time Lenkiewicz congratulated the city entertainments officer for his 'remarkable good taste' in removing the mural. Lenkiewicz had painted the mual free of charge after being approached by the Hoe Theatre's management  who lacked available funds.

Local TV news footage during March 1982 shows the artist helping to reclaim the mural. Lenkiewicz produced an illustrated booklet when he painted the mural, detailing the history of the Comedia del Arte - the backbone of the english theatre. If sucessful in his attempt to save all or part of the mural, he hoped to produce the booklet again to raise funds for charity.

Plymouth Guildhall

Commissioned in 1977 this oil on canvas painting measures approx. 2.5m x 5.0m.  The painting features ROL and a group of vagrants placed as isolated and dispossessed in a scene of civic celebration.  Titled ' A Tribute to Plymouth's Architects and Architecture' it shows prominent landmarks such as Smeatons Tower / the Civic Centre / the statue of Sir Francis Drake and the statue of virgin and child found at the Guildhall entrance.  The persons featured are - (left) -  Isambard Kingdon Brunel / John Foulston / Sir Patrick Abercrombie / J.Paton Watson  - (right) -  R.O. Lenkiewicz / Wee Jock / Diogenes / Dave Helingoe / Eugene / Bill / Cockney Jim /The Bishop / Myriam and an anonymous sleeping/weeping child.

The Riddle Mural, Port Eliot

The Riddle Mural is in the Round Room of Port Eliot House in St Germans, Cornwall.

The mural was painted by Lenkiewicz over a period of 30 years and is some 40 feet in diameter. The work is unfinshed.

The mural is in two halves. One half depicts death, destruction, insanity, unrequited love, and the apocalyptic end of the world, whilst the other reflects love and affection, friendships, harmony, proportion and consensus. Within the overall picture are concealed various references to family skeletons, art history and cabalistic mysteries making for what Lenkiewicz called this work, ‘The Riddle Mural’.

Yankee Burger Restaurant

The Yankee Burger restaurant, 20 Frankfurt Gate was the location of two murals painted on opposite walls by Lenkiewicz in 1976. Each measured approx. 1.2m x 2.5m and continued the wild west theme of the restaurant.

Local press reports during October 1976 stated;

The murals, now almost completed, have however, turned several stomachs while waiting in eager anticipation of a succulent burger. Mr Lenkiewicz has introduced some of his gentlemen of the road to the gun play of the Old West by dressing them up as cowboys and adding a few dead bodies for authentic good measure. "People get a bit upset about the decapitated head and the corpse," said american owner John Desiderio. "The head is from the body of a North Califorian bandit. When they captured him they cut off his head and stuffed it in a glass jar of alcohol and had it exhibited in a museum in San Francisco, but it was destroyed at the time of the first earthquake." Then there is a corpse clutching a pair of Aces and a pair of eights. "The fingers are holding what is known as a 'dead man's hand' - and that's the cards Wild Bill Hickock was holding when he was shot in the back of the head. People say how can you have that in a restaurant, but they don't know the story. It isn't really that gory." There is another customer who has other ideas on the subject however. He always sits with his back to the mural.

Diogenes

This is a placeholder page for information on Edward McKenzie ("Diogenes").

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Lenkiewicz christened him Diogenes after the philosopher who lived in a barrel, because he found him living in a concrete barrel, a circular container, in the crook of a tree looking down onto Chelson Meadow rubbish tip.

Les Ryder

Les Ryder spent most of his adult life living on the streets. He was an instantly recognizable figure, with a distinctive gait and a characteristic way of holding his head tilted to one side. He was known by the nickname 'Cider Ryder',

Ryder features in a number of Lenkiewicz paintings, including several from Project 1.

When Lenkiewicz received an honorary doctorate from theUniversity of Plymouth he invited Ryder as a guest of honour. Ryder was also the guest of honour on the opening evening of the Lenkiewicz Retrospective at the City Art Gallery in 1997, arriving in a limousine.

Ryder spent the last 15 years of his life at Kings House Care Centre in Plymouth. He died on 1 June 2004 at the age of 75. 

Quotes from Les Ryder:

• “Derbyshire born, Derbyshire bred. Strong in the arm, weak in the head.

• “Always keep the creases in your trousers. Don’t shit ’em or that’ll have the creases out!”

The Bishop

Albert Fisher was known as"The Bishop" because of his name... Fisher.  An Archbishop of Canterbury had been called Fisher and Albert was fond of telling people that he was related to that elevated prelate!  This, of course, was not the case but, it didn't matter and his fellow dossers called him Bishop nonetheless.  Albert slept under a tree in Stoke Damerel graveyard on occasion and an experience that he recounted from one sojurn in the graveyard [a conversation with a fox] is shown here. His usual accommodation was at the Salvation Army Hostel in King Street which of course no longer exists.

The Bishop's most impressive 'vision' occured when, 'the sun had been shining through the tree, that every single leaf had turned into a man with a top hat, that each man with a top had had a pint of beer in his hand and that each and every one of them had wished him "Good Morning!"

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The Singer

This is a placeholder page for information on Christopher Byrne ("The Singer").

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