Obsession

W. tells me of his months as an artist's model, being painted by Robert Lenkiewicz, the Plymouth Rembrandt. Lenkiewicz only wanted to talk about philosophy, W. says. He was obsessed with philosophy. He bankrupted himself buying philosophy books, all kinds of books, W. says.

Lenkiewicz bought a derelict church and filled it with books, piles and piles of them, it was quite extraordinary, W. says. W.'d look through the mouldering books with Lenkiewicz, the painter picking up a volume here and there to show him. He had Spinoza's Ethics in a first edition. Rosenzweig's Star of Redemption. He had the pageproofs of Kierkegaard's Discourses on Imagined Occasions, worth thousands of pounds.

Lenkiewicz was painting W. in  series of works called Obsession, W. tells me. He always painted in series, Lenkiewicz – projects, he called them. He had a Vagrancy project and a Street Drinking project. He had a Mentally Handicapped project. But W. was part of the Obsession project, or he was supposed to be. Lenkiewicz died very suddenly, just like that, and it was all over. They had to sell all his paintings to meet his debts. They sold his books too – they had to sell the whole church full of books …

Do I see him as an obsessive?, W. says.