Observations on art education (Lenkiewicz 1987)

1st April 1988 marked the opening of Lenkiewicz's 'Observations on Local Education' project. The private view at 7pm the evening before had attracted many of the notable sitters, including: Michael Duane, Jocelyn Owen, John Wright, Bill Harris, Professor Ted Wragg, author Colin Wilson, John Leonard, Jeff Stratton, Mark Vaughan. His diary notes the private view was well-attended: 'hundreds and hundreds of people - extraordinary night!' This would contrast with the reaction of the general public. A typical diary entry three weeks into the exhibition notes: 'Education project very quiet. Little local interest and of that 90% dull and stupid. Must consider the sense of these projects. So much work, so little interest - and a great deal of vacuous dilettantish carping. After seventeen massive studies on human behaviour, I should be used to it.'

Lenkiewicz turned his frustration at public indifference to the project into a resolve to change his working practices: 'Feel a strong leaning towards reclusive hard work for the future only.' That turning point would lead to the artist's ironic study of the Christian hermits such as St Antony and St Jerome, which became 'The Painter with Women' project.

The Education project included two hefty volumes of notes written by the sitters, from school kids to headmasters to senior education administrators. Yet Lenkiewicz’s own views were confined to his exhibition notes. However, Lenkiewicz prepared a public lecture on the topic of ‘Observations on Art Education’, a passionate statement of his views: ‘I believe that the whole of our education has grown much too practical and rational in a narrow sense, being far too concerned with what seems useful at the moment, as against a long-range view of life, art and humanity. I believe that the arts … can be far more effective in leading students towards a truly personal view of life and man, full of richness, imagination, and comprehension, going beyond what is ‘useful’.'

http://www.robertlenkiewicz.org/sites/default/files/u2/observations_on_a...