Lenkiewicz: The Writer

Robert's writings can be divided into those printed and those in manuscript.

For the earlier projects Robert produced printed booklets to accompany the exhibitions, providing commentary on the philosophical themes they contained (Project list: www.robertlenkiewicz.org/themed-projects); the 'middle period' projects of the late 70s were accompanied by pamphlets giving lists of the paintings and some choice quotes from other authors. The very latest projects also merited longer booklets. Robert also published the Notes on the Barbican Mural to accompany the unveiling in 1972 of the 3,000 sq foot Barbican Mural.

Robert also occasionally wrote short articles for the local rag. I have copies of several of these though doubt there's a complete bibliography available at present.

The manuscript writings are considerably more extensive than those published and for the most part reside at the St Saviours Church archive. Robert kept a journal that he entitled Diary Notes throughout the latter two-thirds or so of his life, commencing in 1966 and running (often with lacunae) until about 2000. These exist as annual volumes, often hand-bound.

Everyone is aware of the Project Notebooks, and these were produced at the same time as the relevant project, testing out ideas and sketches for the project in question. The Notebooks were viewed by Robert as part of the project, though their contents are nowhere near so well-known. Some paintings merited Notebooks of their own, such as the Deathbed painting. To date only The Mary Notebook has been published.  The contents of the elephant folio titled, Mary: Aesthetic Notes, which resided in Robert's library, were re-united with various fragments which existed as separate pictures and published in a single volume known as The Mary Notebook. In addition, the texts of some of the early books were published in pamphlet form (such as Death and the Maiden).

There are also a quantity of loose, single sheet aesthetic notes on various themes personal to Robert. "Aesthetic note" is Lenkiewicz's term for illustrations, generally watercolours, which usually include notes by himself or quotes by philosophers and writers exploring some topic of interest to the artist. Some of these have been auctioned subsequent to his death. The bound Aesthetic Notebooks chronicled various of Robert's relationships: many were done solely by him, many were done by his companions in arms, though these often contained additional notes and illustrations by Robert. They were intended to become part of the library, a resource for scholars interested in the nature of human relationships. There are supposed to be several hundred of these in existence, though relatively few resided in the library at the time of Robert's death. 

There are various letters and notes by Robert, though he was not much of a letter writer. I'm not sure how many there may be of these. Robert was not in the habit of annotating his books but I know that some books of especial interest have marginalia, usually written on a scrap of paper marking a specific page. These notes should also be included.

Relationship Journals

These were personal journals that Lenkiewicz encouraged many of his significant others to write during the course of their relationship with the artist. Some of these are richly illustrated (both by Lenkiewicz himself and the sitters) and run to several volumes.

When Lenkiewicz’s partners agreed to create these journals, which apparently contain the most intimate private reflections of their authors, it was on the understanding that the notes would pass into Lenkiewicz’s possession, to be bound as books and kept in his library as an archive of material about obsessive behaviour or “the falling in love experience”.

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The Mary Notebook

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