LENKIEWICZ COLLOQUIUM
Peninsula Arts, University of Plymouth
Saturday 1 April 2006, 10am-4pm

Illustrated: Self-Portrait. 1978.

Speakers: John Lenkiewicz, Nicola Moyle, Francis Mallett, David Lee, Dr Stephen Clucas.

Hosted by the University of Plymouth's Peninsula Arts and The Lenkiewicz Foundation.

Opened by: Linda Gilroy MP and Mike Hope, Director of Peninsula Arts

This unique one-day public event offers an opportunity to hear a wide range of invited guests talk about various aspects of the artist's life and work, as well the chance to view photographic documentation and rare video footage.

Contributors include publisher Francis Mallett, who will present a general survey of the artist's life and work referring, through extensive visual material, to the various 'sociological enquiry' projects for which the artist has become known. Nicola Moyle from Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery will discuss her experience of working as a curator with Lenkiewicz. Professor Stephen Clucas from Birkbeck College in London, will give a longer talk in the afternoon about the artist's book collecting. Finally, art critic David Lee speaks about Lenkiewicz' critical standing. The day's proceedings will be opened by local MP Linda Gilroy and Mike Hope, Director of Peninsula Arts.

Mike Hope said: "The Lenkiewicz Colloquium promises to be a genuinely thought provoking day of talks, discussions and viewings that has been constructed so as to be both accessible and stimulating for those with a long standing interest in the work of Robert Lenkiewicz, as well as those coming to it for the first time."

Peninsula Arts Programme PDF download.

CLOSE READING
32 Looe Street, Plymouth
Tuesday 23 May 2006
Nahem Shoa

Illustrated: 'Paper Crowns', 1981.

Close Readings is a series of seminar events in which an invited speaker presents their personal 'reading' of a painting, drawing or text by Robert Lenkiewicz.

The speaker for this first Close Reading was Nahem Shoa, a former pupil of Lenkiewicz and an acclaimed artist in his own right. The subject for his 'reading' was Paper Crowns otherwise known as The Painter with Mary in Newspaper Magi-Fool's Hats, 1981. 48 x 69 cm. Oil on canvas. Project - The Painter with Mary: a Study in Obsessional Behaviour.

Uncompromising Study
Hartlepool Art Gallery
24 June to 6 August 2006

Curator Nahem Shoa's YouTube video is available here.

Top national artists profiled in new Hartlepool exhibition

WORK by some of the most exciting figurative painters in Britain will be showcased in an important new exhibition at Hartlepool Art Gallery.

'Uncompromising Study', which runs at the gallery from Saturday 24 June to Sunday 6 August, features pieces by Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Robert Lenkiewicz, and Nahem Shoa.

It also includes the work of the New British Realists - Desmond Haughton, Geoff Crannage, Gbenga Ilumoka, Caroline Poole, Christopher Potter and Myrna Shoa - six contemporary artists who come from the same tradition.

Freud's painting 'Head of a Woman,' which was recently shown in the Musei Civica Veneziani as part of this year's Venice Biennale, and Auerbach's painting 'Building Site Oxford Street' and its accompanying study drawing - which has not been shown for 30 years - are among the pieces which will be on display in the Hartlepool exhibition.

Also featured will be the Lenkiewicz masterpiece 'The Painter with Mary in Newspaper Magi-Fool's Hats' and Shoa's acclaimed 'Giant Head of Ben.'

All the New British Realists share the same commitment to working directly from life and it is not unusual for them to spend years on one work.

To quote Lucian Freud himself "the picture, in order to move us, must never merely remind us of life, but must acquire a life of its own."

Ed Norton, Hartlepool Council's Exhibitions Officer, said: "The exhibition's aim is to show that there is still a modern living European tradition of realist painting going on which is totally relevant in the 21st century. It's also a unique opportunity to see the work of four giants of figurative painting displayed side-by-side. It's interesting to remember that both Lucian Freud and Nahem Shoa both had their first major solo shows in Hartlepool Art Gallery."

(Hartlepool Borough Council Leisure & Culture News - 21/06/2006).

CLOSE READING
The Mary Notebook by R.O. Lenkiewicz
Plymouth Arts Centre
Tuesday 14 November 2006

Illustrated: A page from The Mary Notebook (detail).

Speaker: Jerome Fletcher.

"Jerome Fletcher is a writer, artist and scholar who has published three books on decadence and the European avant-garde. He has also published a number of highly acclaimed works for children. His work has been translated widely, and he has himself translated a number of seminal pieces of twentieth century literature from French. He has performed and presented his work at numerous galleries throughout Europe and North America. He is currently a senior lecturer in writing at Dartington College of Arts.

The Mary Notebook should need little introduction to most visitors to this site, but some may not have had the opportunity to take a good look at it or to consider it carefully. It is a fascinating document offering insights into Lenkiewicz's thinking during the late 70s and early 80s, and is very beautiful in its own right. This Close Reading will offer new insights, no doubt, into this important work, and give attendees the opportunity to take a look at one of the Notebooks."

(Dave Goodwin, www.lenkiewicz.org, 2006).