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 and 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 Ascension of Diogenes by Joe Stoneman - a tribute to Robert's art

As a draughtsman, Lenkiewicz’s particular mastery of portraiture is evident from his paintings and drawings. 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.

When Robert was young he made a conscious decision to subjugate his skill to a greater service: to become a "presenter of information" or a "sociological enquirer", as he usually termed it. By this he meant to reveal the plain fact of a person or thing. For Lenkiewicz, the act of painting was a profoundly moving experience. "To paint oneself is to paint a portrait of someone who is going to die," Lenkiewicz would often remark when asked about his many self-portraits. "And the same applies if one paints anybody else." His main aim was to capture the transient and haunting qualities of his subject. He recognised the limitations of art and considered it second best to the mystery of his subject's sheer existence.

When Robert lived in London, he started painting tramps in-and-around his studio. But the police eventually encouraged him to leave the area due to attracting 'undesirables' to the affluent area of Hampstead. And, in great contrast to the "Swinging Sixties" of London, Lenkiewicz was absorbed in painting and studying society's misfits, mentally ill and down-and-outs. However, after moving to Plymouth (via a short spell in Cornwall) Robert continued to paint tramps. This lead to a large project & exhibition on vagrancy, which he exhibited in one of the warehouses he had commandeered throughout the city to house the down-and-outs, known as "Jacob's Ladder" (so-called as the entrance was originally gained via a ladder). So ignored were the vagrants that a council official opening the exhibition remarked how fortunate Plymouth was to have very few vagrants. Lenkiewicz had shrewdly anticipated this official blindness and, on a signal from him, dozens of these "invisible people" flooded into the room to make his point.

His Projects were large in scale and ambition. Lenkiewicz recalled his fondness for the epic scale whilst still a student. At St. Martin's College of Art, he painted a canvas 364 feet long. "What happened, Lenkiewicz?" asked the Principal. "I'm sorry?" Lenkiewicz replied. "Well, that painting, what happened?" "I don't understand, " Lenkiewicz replied again. "Well, did you run out of canvas?". Lenkiewicz's taste for the grand gesture led to his creation of the famous Barbican mural in 1971, a painting 3000 feet square, dealing with the influence of Jewish thought on Elizabethan philosophy. Although Lenkiewicz was later rather embarrassed by it ("fairly skilled but illustrational"), the mural became a landmark for Plymouthians, as well as visitors to the city. Unforgettably on April Fool's Day, as a result of one of his regular disputes with the local Council, the artist with typical wit whitewashed over it and replaced it with three flying ducks! In many ways, the history of Lenkiewicz is the history of Plymouth over the past thirty years. He was the most hardworking of artists, obsessive in his desire to record the event in front of him. To Lenkiewicz there was more humility involved in presenting one hundred images on a theme that didn't worry about 'high art' than attempting to make the perfect painting. This didn't stop him producing some haunting early individual pieces: "Plymouth Mourning over its Unfortunates"; "The Lynch"; "The Burial of John Kynance"; "Belle and Diogenes at prayer". The sombre colours - greys, greens and earthy browns - give these paintings a reflective, elegiac quality.

The late Sixties and early Seventies were a time of great poverty for Lenkiewicz, with a very low standard of living in various studios around the city: Keppel Terrace, Clifton Street and Rectory Road. During the winter he would be forced to burn cardboard boxes in his studio to keep warm. The little money he earned from selling paintings was spent on paint and canvas. Often he would paint on parachute silk or sailcloth found in bins by the dossers themselves. Many works from this period have rough seems stitched across them.

From the time of the late seventies in a series of more private Projects, "Love and Romance", "Jealousy" and "The Painter with Mary", Robert showed that he was not afraid to turn his painter's eye inwards: He investigated his own personal relationships, in particular what he called the "falling in love experience". These he recorded with a manic intensity in paintings and notebooks, often in a more subjective, allegorical pictorial style. His conclusion in these investigations was that the addiction of the lover to the loved one was similar, if not identical, to the addiction of the alcoholic to drink or the fanatic to a belief. Thus was born his philosophy of "aesthetic fascism", treating the other person as property. He applied this theory starkly on a sociological level in his "Observations on Local Education" to society's treatment of the young. In this project, he painted every head teacher in the city, memorably capturing the gulf between the system's aspirations and its reality in paintings such as "The Blind leading the Blind", "The Burial of Education" and the "The Glue Sniffer", an extraordinary piece of virtuoso painting. Lenkiewicz's hope was that people would see the exhibition and think "Oh my God! These are the people teaching my children!" Lenkiewicz thought it was as futile to try to argue someone out of their cherished beliefs or prejudices as it was to talk them out of thinking they were in love. His point was to shock them into a new awareness, a new aesthetic understanding.

In 1994 this was followed by an ironic look at his own relationships in "The Painter with Women: observations on the theme of the Double". For the first time, Lenkiewicz chose to present the complete exhibition elsewhere than his own studios at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham. More than 35,000 people visited the show in a single week, a figure easily surpassed in 1997 by his first exhibition in a public gallery, the Robert Lenkiewicz Retrospective at Plymouth City Museum. But time was running out. His health was failing, the result of a serious heart condition. Undaunted, he began his largest project yet on "Addictive Behaviour" with plans for over 800 sitters. His aim was to cover every "addictive scenario", including alcoholism, theological convictions and obsessive relationships, but the project remained unfinished at the time of his death. Lenkiewicz will be remembered as a genuine outsider and radical, consciously at odds with current thinking on ethical and artistic issues. He cared less about the opinion of the art critic than that of the man-in-the-street. His art is generous in its ability to communicate with ordinary people, who are little interested in the more esoteric world of contemporary art; it is democratic and humane but never sentimental. Above all, his paintings reveal people for what they are without moral judgement. If the task of the artist is to show what it was to be alive in a certain time and in a certain place, then the qualities of Robert Lenkiewicz's work will increasingly become clear to future generations. Once asked how he would like to be remembered, as a sociological enquirer or as a skilful painter who had something to say about the human condition, he replied characteristically: "When one has a choice between two things, always take both."

Lenkiewicz's projects:

Themed Projects (Click here for information on Lenkiewicz's themed projects).

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Lenkiewicz's painting style and technique.

Use of Colour:

Quote from Nahem Shoa in 2006:
"For me Lenkiewicz'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."


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Type of canvas used:
Dependent upon the state of Lenkiewicz's finances at the time, it most commonly a standard canvas.

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Priming:
The canvasses were usually primed with diluted black masonry paint (sometimes a vinyl-matt black emulsion).

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Stretching:
Stretched and stapled to wooden frames.

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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 a man called Billy. 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.

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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.

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Lenkiewicz's interest in mysticism, Kabbala, magic ritual, witchcraft and the occult.

Ursula Kemp
Lenkiewicz bought the remains of Ursula Kemp - hanged in 1582 for being a witch - for a reported sum of either £5,000 or £8,000 from a Cornish museum in the late 1990s. He put the woman's skeleton in a lined coffin on the first floor of his library in Lambhay Hill for visitors to see. Large nails had been placed on the skeleton at the points where metal stakes were driven into the body of the 'witch' to stop her spirit from rising.

Ursula Kemp, a midwife in her forties, was tried and executed in Chelmsford, Essex, after being accused of witchcraft by her eight-year-old son. Her remains were unearthed by accident in 1921 and then taken to Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft, where they were later bought by Lenkiewicz. Although she was tried at Chelmsford, Ursula Kemp actually came from St Osyth, a village on the coast a few miles away. The skeleton is now understood to be part of Lenkiewicz's estate, which includes the embalmed body of Diogenes, who was discovered in a drawer in the Lenkiewicz's studio.

In an article in the Plymouth Evening Herald, Dr Philip Stokes was quoted as saying: "The skeleton was lying inside the coffin, which was lined with blue material. The skeleton was laid out in the coffin with nails laid beside it at the appropriate points. It was at the far end of the library on the first floor, where the indexer would work. There was nothing special about it, it was just dried out old bones. I was not surprised it was there because Robert has had major projects on death and he was an authority on witches. His library of witchcraft materials was unique. He got a number of skulls from various sources over the years."

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Various exhibitions that have been held featuring the work of Robert Lenkiewicz.

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 on The Lenkiewicz.org website:

RETROSPECTIVE PAINTINGS: R. 0. LENIKIEWICZ SELECTED from TWELVE PROJECTS on the RELATIONSHIP SERIES also: Work between the ages of 14-23. BLACKFRIARS GALLERY58, 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.

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Murals:

Existing murals:
The Elizabethan Mural, The Parade - 1971
The Last Judgement, Southside Street - 1985
Prete's Cafe, Southside Street (The Last Supper) - 1970's
Bella Napoli,41-42 Southside Street (Oliver Twist) - 1969
Plymouth Age Concern, Hoegate Street (Einstein) - 1982
The Round Room, Port Eliot (The Riddle Mural) early 1970's - late 1990's
Plymouth Guildhall ('A Tribute To Plymouth's Architects And Architecture') - 1977


Lost murals:
The New Hoe Summer Theatre, (History Of The Harlequinade) - 1970
The Mayflower Cinema, St.Budeaux (Pilgrim Fathers) - 1970
Hampstead Pub (Napoleon) - 1966
Purple Onion Boutique, Tavistock (Psychedelic) - 1968
Devonport, Cornwall Street (Dr.David Owen & Residents) - 1988
The Yankee Burger,20 Frankfurt Gate (Western) - 1977
The Shakespeare Pub, Devonport (Shakespearean)
Union Street Shop, next to Odeon Cinema (?)
London School (The Classroom) - early 1960's

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 methat 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.

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Lenkiewicz The Book Collector:

Bibliotheca Lenkiewicziana

Or, A Short Account of the Library of Robert Oskar Lenkiewicz (1941 – 2002). For many people, Robert Lenkiewicz will be remembered for his paintings and the highly publicised ‘antics’ he performed, yet what many will not realise is that the paintings and antics were done to draw attention to specific ideas and themes rather than as attention seeking stunts. Lenkiewicz identified his painting projects as ‘sociological enquiry reports’ and each of these, on (amongst other subjects) death, vagrancy, sexual behaviour, and education, formed aninterlocking pattern of enquiry upon the themes of desire and belief that Lenkiewicz described as having a physiological basis. There were 21 projects in all in the ‘Relationship Series,’ with the twentieth, that upon Addictive Behaviour, left unfinished at the time of Lenkiewicz’s death.Underpinning each of the projects was a period of solid, academic research based upon books that Lenkiewicz acquired for his library. The library was the intellectual companion of the paintings, and any appreciation of Lenkiewicz’s art legacy must also take account of the library, though the latter remains a largely unknown quantity to most.

Lenkiewicz began collecting books as a child, having a shelf in his bedroom holding his books on painting, horses and philosophy. Over the years his bibliomania was responsible for the massive expansion of the collection. If Lenkiewicz was to be believed, he owned anywhere between 250,000 to 700,000 books, all stored in various buildings around Plymouth, citing a house at Stoke and a warehouse at a mystery location, though the reality of this was very different, and by the time of his death the collection numbered no more than 25,000 books. The following description will detail the layout of the library as it was before Lenkiewicz died in 2002, when it had reached its final and most complete form, before the process of disposal began in the wake of Lenkiewicz’s death.

The bulk of Lenkiewicz’s library was housed at his Studio on The Parade and came to occupy seven rooms there. Entering the Studio via The Parade, the visitor came upon an imposing door by the foot of the stairs in which was a small window, through this some view of the library beyond might be had. In fact the library occupied three rooms on the ground floor: the Art Biography Room, which visitors could see a part of opposite the door, the Art History Room, and the Occult Philosophy Room (frequently called the Metaphysics Room by Lenkiewicz), which both led off the central room, one to the north the other to the south. The Art Biography Room, as its name suggests, contained biographies on painters and catalogues of their works, arranged in alphabetical order around the room. Art history and biography was a subject Lenkiewicz was especially knowledgeable about, and the holdings there were especially strong. There were probably about 3,000 books present. This room doubled as something of an office, and a table to one side of the room was piled high with his correspondence and notes. Before the upstairs of St. Saviour’s Library was completed, the room was also a kind of ‘reception room’ where Lenkiewicz received visitors and talked with them. The Art History Room to the North contained modern books on art history, and British and world history in general. The art history books were arranged thematically, the history books chronologically. In all about 1,500 – 2,000 volumes.The Occult Philosophy Room contained the bulk of the antiquarian volumes in the library and was an especially strong collection. The room was split into three sections: dealing with the neo-platonic revival of the Renaissance and of occult philosophy and practice in general, including works by Lull, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Ficino, Bruno, Kircher, Boehme, Fludd and Dee; works dealing with alchemy and alchemical practise and symbolism, many of which were in manuscript; and Jewish Kabbalah and mystical thought, again including original manuscript
material from the early modern period. Allied subjects of Freemasonry, twentieth-century occultism (including Aleister Crowley), and antiquarianism were also represented. In all probably 3,000 books. The books were complemented here by a range of artefacts, from Ethiopian magical charms to nineteenth century sigils.
Ascending the first set of stairs, the visitor was presented with sight of the Death Room, which contain the sections of Lenkiewicz’s library dealing with Death, on the north and west walls, and Fascism, on the south.
The death section of the library comprised approximately 800 volumes, dealing with old age and gerontology, palliative care of the dying, sociological and literary studies, melancholy and suicide, memorials, archaeological studies of funerary remains, together with various tracts - from the popular to the serious, on theories of the afterlife. There were a few antiquarian volumes in this section, however the bulk of the death section was made up of twentieth-century publications, some of them purchased from the libraries of notable practitioners in medicine, such as Dr. Maurice Natanson. The Fascism section mostly concentrated on Nazism, and the books focussed on the Second World War of 1939 - 1945, from the Nazi war apparatus to the personalities involved. The rise of neo-fascism was also chronicled here, together with slavery. The Death Room also contained a glass topped display table containing the manuscript Mary Notebook, and the original notebook relating to the Old Age project. A glazed cabinet against the east wall contained a collection of
Lenkiewicz’s manuscript Diary Notes volumes, which dated from the mid-1970s, along with a collection of his relationship notebooks, mostly from the late 1980s/early 1990s. As with the downstairs rooms, the Death Room also contained artefacts connected with the room’s theme, and a collection of skulls and other
body parts, and Nazi memorabilia were kept here, together with the mummy of Diogenes, which was secreted within a compartment in the glazed cabinet. The library next to The Death Room, though entered separately, was what became known, from summer 2001 onwards, as The Witchcraft Room.

Lenkiewicz’s incomparable collection of antiquarian books relating to witchcraft and demonology was the finest such collection in private hands, certainly in Europe, if not the world. The books were ranged on the north and east walls, the north wall housing modern historiographic studies of witchcraft, the east the antiquarian volumes. The modern section contained recent scholarly expositions of the subject, together with more new age interpretations and sensationalist accounts, the antiquarian material covered the full experience of early modern witchcraft interpretations, and contained the writings of Scot, Ady, James I, Glanvill, Cooper, Webster, Molitor, Bovet, and Hutchinson, amongst others. There were at least a dozen editions of the Malleus Maleficarum, the notorious ‘Hammer of Witches,’ including the first edition in folio. There was also a section dealing with related preternatural phenomena such as vampires, ghosts and werewolves. In all the collection amounted to some 900 volumes. Opposite these, on the south and west walls, were the psychology books, about 800 in total, which covered the growth and range of the discipline, and where the likes of Freud and Jung were well represented.

A set of double doors lead through then into The Erotica Room, so named after the comprehensive collection of material relating to that theme, though very little was what might be described as pornographic. The erotic material mostly related to various twentieth century sociological and psychological studies into sex and sexuality, and the collection covered all types and experiences of sexual behaviour and desire. The collection sat alongside the section amassed concerning religion, which here mostly concerned various editions of the Bible, though tracts produced by various denominations were represented, most notably the Methodists. Finally, works on educational theory and practice were housed here, comprising standard reference works along with the works of Gurdjiev and the like. The room contained probably 2000 volumes. The final set of stairs led up into the Studio proper, though a final room on the top floor contained Lenkiewicz’s Literature Room, containing modern works of literature and biographies of authors, all arranged alphabetically Amongst Lenkiewicz’s favourite authors, Oscar Wilde was well represented. The room also contained various library catalogues, including the British Library Catalogue, and various book sale catalogues and books about books. The room contained about 2000 volumes.

The St. Saviour’s Library on Lambhay Hill, over against the Citadel, contained, from summer 2001 onwards, Lenkiewicz’s philosophy library on two floors. The ground floor comprised the modern philosophy section – those books published after 1901, arranged by branches of philosophy, and the upper floor contained antiquarian philosophy books, arranged, for the most part, chronologically, from the pre-Socratics through until the end of the nineteenth century; these books were kept together with a miscellany of other antiquarian books, mostly relating to scientific and topographical fields of enquiry. In all St. Saviours contained about 6,000 books. The St. Saviour’s Library became the showcase collection, and it was here that visitors, especially those connected with funding opportunities, were brought first, owing to the aesthetic impact the library had (The Duke Humfrey Library at the Bodleian in Oxford was an obvious inspiration). The building also housed a range of artefacts, including material from ancient Egypt, Nazi concentration camps, medical material, and, most famously perhaps, the skeleton alleged to be that of Ursula Kemp, hanged in 1582 at St. Osyth in Essex and purchased by Lenkiewicz in 1999 from Cecil Williamson, the founder of the Museum of Witchcraft at Boscastle.

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Lenkiewicz: The Philanthropist

the many ways in which Lenkiewicz helped others (by donating time, money and his reputation).
Lenkiewicz did not always gain universal approval for his attempts to help others.

Dossers Annual Christmas Dinner
For many years Robert Lenkiewicz was instrumental in organising a Dossers Annual
Christmas Dinner for the homeless in Plymouth (usually held in Bretonside).
This page is currently a placeholder for information on this event. If you have
infomration, please add it by editing this item.
Jacob's Ladder
One of the warehouses Lenkiewicz commandeered throughout Plymouth to house
down-and-outs and to occasionally host exhibitions.
It was named 'Jacob's Ladder' because entrance was originally gained via a
ladder.

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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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Miscellaneous

Lenkiewicz on Television
Over the years Robert Lenkiewicz featured in a number of television programmes.
Here are details of some of the shows aired on the local ITV channel:
Lenkiewicz - The Legacy - 13th September 2002 - 30 mins
The Art of the Matter - 24th February 2000 - 30 mins
Demon or Delight - 8th May 1996 - 60 mins
Lenkiewicz – The Painter Preserved 12th April 1995 - 30 mins
Carlton Television have previously been able to provide copies on VHS. However,
they are currently upgrading their system, so are not able to do so at the
moment.
Lenkiewicz was also the subject of one of the 'Turning Point' shows: "Turning
Points is a series of short films in which celebreties from all walks of life
tell the story of a significant incident or encounter, personal or professional,
which brought about a major change in their lives." This recording is available
to view online at www.flybynight.tv/video.htm.
In 1990 Lenkiewicz featured in the Ruby Wax show 'Hit and Run', produced by BBC
- 20 mins.
Westcountry broadcast a series earlier this year called 'What Ever Happened
To..?', which featured news stories from their archives followed by a quick
'update' on the story.
The show that was aired on 12/02/04 included archive footage of Lenkiewicz,
Diogenes and The Bishop, along with recent interviews with people who knew
Lenkiewicz (including Annie Hill-Smith).
Lenkiewicz's Students

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Teaching Methods

Concept used by Lenkiewicz in his teaching included:
Tone of the tone
Colour of the colour
Shape of the shape
Seeing the whole
By following these excercises under Lenkiewicz's guidance, students acquired a
basic grounding in techniques for accurate representation of tone, colour and
shape together with a sensitivity to the way objects in the visual field
interrelated.
When once asked if he had ever produced a written set of notes for his method of
teaching the rudiments of figurative painting, Lenkiewicz stated that he liked
to tailor the program for each individual student. The vital element was
Lenkiewicz's astute judgment in criticizing other artist's work and the
opportunity to correct bad habits in his pupils, based on a lifetime of artistic
experience.
Lesson One
Lenkiewicz would often give new students the following exercise:
Small piece of hardboard (A3) primed black.
Group of small geometric object...rectangles, squares, spheres - Lightbulb
box, toothpaste box, rubber ball will do.
Prime half of the objects black and half of the objects white.
Arrange objects and paint in black and white.
Paint for as long as you can bear...every night for weeks, months.
Easiest way is to keep repriming the same hardboard to start over again.
Use a 'claude' mirror to check tones (Claude mirror is a piece of glass
painted black on one side... I use an old picture frame and prime one side
black). And also told students to 'squint' (half-close) your eyes when looking
at the subject to be painted, which helped to you to see increased contrast in
the subject.
Once competent, prime one of the objects a colour and add back into the still
life. Paint for as long as possible again (with only the one added colour
while the rest of the objects are B&W).
After time add a second colour and repeat and so on.
There are other versions to this exercise where hardboard is split into two
etc...

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Former students include:

Lucinda Arundell
Piran Bishop
Karen Ciambriello
Louise Courtnell
James Guy Eccleston
David Gamble
David Gray
Handrew Morgan
John Nash
Diane Nevitt
Nahem Shoa
Lisa Stokes
Joe Stoneman
Yana Trevail
Dan Wheatley

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Limited Edition Prints (Click to see a list of the prints that Lenkiewicz has had published)

Lenkiewicz Articles  (Selected newspaper articles on Robert Lenkiewicz) 

RobertLenkiewicz.com (The Robert Lenkiewicz website)