Lenkiewicz gets his second mention this month in the Independent. This time it is only a passing reference:

When I was a teenager in Plymouth, a certain sort of girl used to hang around the Barbican, hoping to be taken as a muse by the local artist.

The artist we were after was Robert Lenkiewicz, an enigmatic handsome bastard and the subject the sort of rumours particularly beguiling to middle-class girls who aimed to go to the bad. I never made it into Lenkiewicz's studio (which is probably for the best). I should have headed to the Hoe, where I'd have had a much better chance with the other famous local artist, Beryl Cook.

I remember The Dolphin pub, where Cook's crazy ladies and fat-bottomed girls used to hang out, and the queue at Cap'*Jaspers, which was the image of one of her paintings.

Such is life: you think you're a brooding Anna in a Blue Dress, and then you realise you're happy to be Dancing the Black Bottom. It's one of the funny things about growing up.

Plymouth Central Library is to stage an exhibition of rare antiquarian books.

The exhibition runs from 4 June until mid July, and will feature a number of old and rare books. Themes covered include mysticism and philosophy. There will also be a selection of 'curious items' from Lenkiewicz's library.

There will be examples of 'inventive bookbinding' along with craft work by the artist-designer Stephen Glendenning.

The Lenkiewicz Foundation have issued the following response to questions submitted by users of this web site:

To start at the beginning, and in response to the questions posted, the current Trustees of The Lenkiewicz Foundation comprise: John Lenkiewicz (Chair), Francis Mallett (Vice Chair), Larry Lynch, Esther Dallaway, Graham Carey, Anna Jones, Roger Ferris and myself, Anna Navas (spokesperson). Another Trustee, Nina Calder, will soon be appointed. Further to our previous announcement, Wolfe Lenkiewicz did not take up his position and we are keen to continue identifying new Trustees with skills that will be helpful for TLF’s future and to bring fresh ideas to it.

From the rather small number of questions this time, we assume that members of the website are waiting to see what progress the new Board makes in the coming months. We are certainly prepared to be judged by results in bringing Robert’s work to a wider audience, in making the TLF collection as accessible as possible and in furthering the charity’s educational objectives. Although we carry the responsibility as Trustees, we recognise that there is a wide community who share a genuine interest in seeing these things happen and whose views we’d like to hear.

To answer the query about premises, we are at an advanced stage of negotiations over premises on the Barbican, which will become a home for TLF’s collection, and which will be open to the public on a regular basis. In the meantime, the Ben Uri exhibition is rapidly coming upon us and we have a series of events planned around the show, which will be announced shortly. We would like to exhibit the Self Portrait exhibition here in Plymouth immediately after the Ben Uri show is over, so we hope to announce dates and a venue very shortly.

TLF is also in talks with Plymouth City Museum over an exhibition there next spring. This will focus strongly on the sociological aspects of Robert’s work. We anticipate this will be the first in a series of collaborative exhibitions between TLF and the City Museum over the coming years. We are very keen to keep Robert’s profile high in the city, where he lived and worked for so long.

A new website for TLF is currently at a design stage and it should be up and running in the next few weeks. In the future, TLF is very keen to develop its online presence by gradually making its archive available online. The website will enable those interested in supporting Robert’s work to join the new Friends’ organisation, which will be represented by a Trustee, whose exclusive task this will be. Details of the benefits of becoming a Friend of TLF will also be announced shortly.

TLF is keen to prioritise all these tasks. Many are in progress, but we do still ask for patience, as some of these plans depend upon the final winding up of the Estate. We realise that our responsibility towards Robert is in the achievement of these goals. This includes listening to others’ views and criticisms about where we may be failing. So please keep those opinions coming!

Anna Navas, TLF Spokesperson

Today's Independent carries quite a long feature on Lenkiewicz. The tone is set by the article's tagline: "He had thousands of lovers, faked his own demise, and kept an embalmed corpse in his home. Yes, Robert Lenkiewicz was one of the great eccentrics – and now, prices for his paintings are soaring".

What follows is very much 'Lenkiewicz by numbers', with the author of the first part of the article (Alice Jones) doing little to suggest that she has even seen a Lenkiewicz painting in the flesh.

A valiant effort is made by Francis Mallett to steer things away from the predictable, but by that stage it is too late. Most readers will probably already have written Lenkiewicz off as little more than an eccentric from the provinces.

The article concludes with a more critical assessment of Lenkiewicz's art.

Penned by Tom Lubbock, the conclusion is perhaps unlikely to have people flocking to the Ben Uri later this year.

Lubbock comments: "It wouldn't seem so bad if (as one of the art world) I were to say, outright, that I think Lenkiewicz was a very poor painter, and why; for example, that his technique is just a means to an end, efficiently and repetitively delivering certain effects, with no creative life. Or that his emotional repertoire is absurdly cute and pathos-pumping – inside every Lenkiewicz figure, "The Crying Boy" is wildly signalling to be let out. And that his young ladies seem all to have stepped coyly from a copy of Brides magazine, circa 1972. And that he hasn't a clue about colour or how to organise a picture. And that everything glistens".

Lubbock concludes his review with a ranking of artists likely to be shown at the Tate: "Class 1: Lucian Freud, Paula Rego. Class 2: Maggi Hambling, John Wonnacott. Class 3: Peter Howson, Jonathan Yeo. Class 4: Lenkiewicz... and probably beyond that, still, Vettriano and Cook".

The article can be read in full here.