At The Edge: Works by Robert Lenkiewicz 1941- 2002
Thursday 29 November 2007
novas gallery Camden
73 Parkway
Camden Town
London
NW1 7PP
T: 020 7267 5641/ 9127
Exhibition: 29th November - 25th January 2008
Private View: 29th November, 6pm - 9pm
Open: Wed - Sun, 11am -5pm
FREE ENTRY
Robert Lenkiewicz ... sometimes controversial, undoubtedly an exception to all the rules, probably one of a handful of twentieth century English masters. Charity of The year, Novas, is proud to present an outstanding exhibition of the work of this extraordinary painter and polymath.
The exhibition has been curated by Annie Hill-Smith who knew Lenkiewicz for many years. Lenkiewicz has been called ‘a modern day Rembrandt’ but his work nonetheless is very much of our time. Whatever else you do, you shouldn't miss this amazing exhibition of paintings in Camden Town.
‘At the edge’ brings together for the first time, paintings from several of the themes that Lenkiewicz explored throughout his career including Death, Vagrancy, Addiction and Suicide. The show focuses on people who inhabit the ‘hidden’ part of life or are ‘at the edge’. This is indeed an aspect of our world that challenges popular cultural stereotypes of beauty. The artist draws us into an intense melting pot, a cross-section of our society that is seldom portrayed, often regarded as being peripheral and he creates a startling, sometimes shocking but also movingly beautiful and thought provoking world that reminds us forcefully of our own humanity.
Lenkiewicz adopted an almost sociological approach to his projects but the paintings never let us forget that he was a painter first and foremost. These are stunning paintings. Throughout his career, he worked on more than twenty themes on a range of societal issues. He showed his work gathered into project based exhibitions and this curator has chosen to be faithful to the artist’s method thus echoing Lenkiewicz’ own practice. Novas, also following the painter’s lead, has conducted a survey using the painter’s original questionnaire on the subject of Vagrancy. Do you consider yourself a vagrant?
“I do not see myself as an artist. I see myself as a painter who produces sociological inquiry reports by visual means.”Robert Lenkiewicz, 2001.
The images that confront you as you come into the gallery include Lenkiewicz himself on his own imagined Death Bed, surrounded by grieving family but also many other images of people who are in situations of isolation or are excluded. Lenkiewicz documented society with unsentimental intensity in a world before the word 'exclusion' had even hit the headlines.
“These paintings are beautiful… Robert observed that just because a painting shows someone committing suicide on a bed doesn’t mean it cannot be beautiful…”Annie Hill-Smith.
Even in today’s day and age, ‘at the edge’ could still be considered shocking; certainly some of the paintings did shock when they were first shown thirty years ago, for example the painting of Diogenes and Albert naked. This is an exhibition with an after-taste that is intended to provoke thought in the viewer.
