Robert Lenkiewicz
Mark met Robert on 20th December 1998 and kept a near contemporaneous note of his conversations recorded later the same day of the first meeting and subsequent lessons. Here are some extracts.
"He (Robert) exploded the need to suffer : Soutine living in shit painting fly covered skeletons created great art- but this was not essential for great art. Some very poor artists live in shit and create rubbish."
"He (Robert) described art school fascists : the idea in the 1960s of ignoring art history and saying 'do your own thing'- with no context. He described how Jasper Johns had been latched on to by young artists who only understood him superficially and aped what he painted but didn't understand him- that for example his US flag was underpinned by his appreciation of Wittgenstein."
"I asked about the idea of a painting standing alone - being enough. He said it always needs explanation. How can a white sheet of paper describe the whole of life? He criticised artists as being mostly thick and not of interest. He criticised the superficial and facile distinction between abstract and figurative. The difference between a portrait and a yellow squiggle. Philosophically there is no difference between the two. It is therefore in philosophy that he finds the basis of his thinking about the human condition."
Mark became a trustee of The Lenkiewicz Foundation in 2009. For more information about it, please visit the Lenkiewicz Foundation website.