{{short description|American painter}}
{{Infobox artist | image = | name = Robert Lentz | honorific_suffix = OFM | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1946}} | birth_place = Colorado | death_date = | death_place = | known_for = Icon painting | training = | movement = | notable_works = | patrons = | awards = }} '''Robert Lentz''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=OFM}} (born 1946) is an American Franciscan friar and religious icon painter.<ref name="Trinity">[http://www.trinitystores.com/?artist=1 Brother Robert Lentz, ofm at Trinity Stores], retrieved 1 November 2007.</ref><ref name="Julian">[http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/days/features.php?id=10952 Julian of Norwich, Icon by Robert Lentz], retrieved November 1, 2007.</ref> He is particularly known for incorporating contemporary social themes into his icon work. He belongs to the Order of Friars Minor, and is currently stationed in Holy Name Province.<ref name=HNP>{{cite web|url= http://www.hnp.org/publications/hnp_today_view.cfm?iid=117&aid=2381|title= Texas Church Dedicates Robert Lentz's Artwork|date= February 18, 2009|work= HNP Today, hnp.org|publisher= Franciscan Friars, Holy Name Province|access-date= December 1, 2010|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110716071438/http://www.hnp.org/publications/hnp_today_view.cfm?iid=117&aid=2381|archive-date= July 16, 2011}}</ref>
==Life== Lentz was born in rural Colorado to a family of Russian descent and of a Russian Orthodox background.<ref name="Trinity" /><ref name="Julian" /><ref name="Marian">[https://wayback.archive-it.org/4727/20150904190707/http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/gallery/exhibits/lentz.html An Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art by Robert Lentz], Marian Library, retrieved November 1, 2007.</ref> Lentz originally intended to enter the Franciscan Order as a young man in the 1960s, joining the formation program for St. John the Baptist Province, but left before taking his vows.<ref name=HNP/> Afterward, he was inspired by his family's Eastern Christian heritage and became interested in icon painting. He took up formal study in 1977 as an apprentice painter to a master of Greek icon painting from the school of Photios Kontoglou at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline, Massachusetts.<ref name="Trinity"/><ref name="Julian" /><ref name=HNP/>
He then lived for a several decades in Albuquerque, New Mexico, working out of his Holy Prophet Elias Icon Studio. During his time in the Secular Franciscan community in New Mexico, Lentz developed a close relationship to the local friars, and again felt the call to join the order. He was received into the Order of Friars Minor in New Mexico in 2003, and transferred to the Holy Name Province on the East Coast in 2008. After relocating he taught at St. Bonaventure University.<ref name=HNP/> He was then stationed at Holy Name College in Silver Spring, Maryland.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.naz.edu/news/robert-wentz-speaks-on-faith-and-art-3 |title= Robert Lentz Speaks on Faith and Art, March 29–30 |date= February 23, 2012 |work= www.naz.edu |publisher= Nazareth College |access-date=March 5, 2013}}</ref> Since 2021, he has been back at St. Bonaventure Friary in New York.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Master iconographer Br. Robert Lentz, O.F.M., discusses his innovative icons |url=https://www.sbu.edu/news/news-items/2021/09/29/master-iconographer-br.-robert-lentz-o.f.m.-discusses-his-innovative-icons |access-date=2026-02-23 |website=www.sbu.edu}}</ref>
Lentz is gay. In New Mexico, Lentz taught William Hart McNichols, another gay Christian iconographer.<ref name="Advocate">Mubarak Dahir (July 23, 2002).[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+dangerous+lives+of+gay+priests%3A+fearing+a+witch-hunt+in+the+wake...-a089871725 "The dangerous lives of gay priests: fearing a witch-hunt in the wake of the sex abuse scandal, gay Roman Catholic priests talk of their dedication to their work and their God—and of the secret loves that put their careers at risk"], page 6. Retrieved December 1, 2010.</ref> He also taught iconographer Lewis Williams, OFS.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lewis Williams, OFS |url=https://trinitystores.com/collections/lewis-williams-ofs |access-date=2026-02-23 |website=Trinity Stores |language=en}}</ref>
==Work== While he first learned to paint with egg tempera (egg yolks mixed with powdered earth colors), he eventually learned how to adapt the technique to acrylic paint. He also uses real gold, which makes his work radiate light. Lentz's icons include fourteen large images of recently canonized saints, people of various cultures and ethnicities, and modern secular political and cultural figures.<ref name="Marian" /><ref name="Johnson">[http://www.tobyjohnson.com/reviewcherry.html ''Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More''] By Kittredge Cherry, reviewed by Toby Johnson, retrieved November 1, 2007.</ref> His 1989 icon, ''Apache Christ'', depicts Jesus as a Mescalero holy man and is displayed in the St. Joseph Apache Mission Church.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bharath |first1=Deepa |title=Apache Christ icon controversy sparks debate over Indigenous Catholic faith practices |url=https://apnews.com/article/new-mexico-apache-christ-painting-catholic-controversy-5e8c0331dabb1a80b36b08c7327601f1 |work=Associated Press |date=July 24, 2024 |language=en |access-date=August 4, 2024 |archive-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240803141845/https://apnews.com/article/new-mexico-apache-christ-painting-catholic-controversy-5e8c0331dabb1a80b36b08c7327601f1 |url-status=live }}</ref> Toby Johnson calls Lentz's icon of Harvey Milk "a national gay treasure".<ref name="Johnson" /> His 1994 icon of Sergius and Bacchus was first displayed at Chicago's Gay Pride Parade, and has become a popular symbol in the gay Christian community.<ref>{{cite book |title= Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive Peoples |last= O'Neill |first= Dennis |year= 2010 |publisher= Trafford Publishing |isbn= 978-1426925054|page= 82''f'' | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qjl1H9GcetMC&pg=PA82 }}</ref> Addison H. Hart of ''Touchstone'' criticized Lentz's works for breaking with the traditional purpose of Christian icons, writing that they "do not serve as vehicles of the tradition, but as propaganda and individual expression".<ref name="Touchstone">[http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=15-01-064-b review: ''God’s Word in Color: The Mystical Language of Icons'' by Solrunn Nes], reviewed by Addison H. Hart, ''Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity'', retrieved November 1, 2007.</ref> Some of his work is featured with the text of a Joan Chittister's book as listed in the bibliography below. Reproductions of his images are available through [https://trinitystores.com/ Trinity Stores].
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== *''A Passion for Life: Fragments of the Face of God'', by Joan D. Chittister and Robert Lentz, 1996, Orbis Books, 132 pages, {{ISBN|978-1-57075-076-2}} *''Christ in the Margins'', by Robert Lentz and Edwina Gately, 2003, Orbis Books, 144 pages, {{ISBN|978-1-57075-321-3}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lentz, Robert}} Category:1946 births Category:Painters from Colorado Category:American people of Russian descent Category:Living people Category:20th-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:21st-century American painters Category:21st-century American male artists Category:Secular Franciscans Category:American gay artists Category:LGBTQ Roman Catholics Category:American Friars Minor Category:Roman Catholic religious brothers Category:St. Bonaventure University faculty Category:LGBTQ people from Colorado Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people