David Lenz (born 14 August 1962 in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. Since 1990 Lenz has painted portraits of Americans. Lenz won the grand prize in the 2006 inaugural Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition organized by the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

. Lenz's winning entry was entitled ''Sam and the Perfect World''.

Biography

The grandson of painter Nic Lenz, and the son of an art dealer, Lenz received a bachelor of fine arts degree from the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a Public university, public Urban university, urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropo ...

in 1985. In the spring of 1989, after four years in publishing and advertising as an art director, Lenz left commercial art to become a full-time fine artist. At first he painted landscapes based on his travels to northern Wisconsin and

Quetico Provincial Park Quetico Provincial Park is a large wilderness park in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, known for its excellent canoe camping, canoeing and fishing. The park shares its southern border with Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. These early paintings were influenced greatly by

Tom Uttech Tom Uttech (born October 27, 1942) is an American landscape painter, photographer, and former art professor. His inspiration has come from travels to northern Minnesota and the Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario. Biography Born in Merrill, Wisco ...

, a professor at the

, and by the luminous light quality of

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

artists

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was no ...

Frederic Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

, and

Sanford Gifford Sanford Robinson Gifford (July 10, 1823 – August 29, 1880) was an American landscape painter and a leading member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists. A highly-regarded practitioner of Luminism, his work was noted for its ...

. After moving to the east side of

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, Lenz began to paint the neighborhoods and people of the central city. The city's children, mostly

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

, very quickly became the focus of his paintings. In these works, completed between about 1990 to 2000, the hope and vitality of the children's faces contrasts starkly with the worn down reused sidewalks, streets, and houses of the central city. In 1999, Lenz embarked on a series of paintings depicting the lives of Wisconsin dairy farmers Ervin and Mercedes Wagner. The never-ending work of

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a h ...

, the toll it takes on the body, and the cultural isolation of rural life are themes of this series. Between 2000 and 2005 Lenz almost exclusively painted pictures of the Wagners and their farm. This series has been exhibited extensively in regional museums throughout the Midwest. ''Thistles'', completed in 2001, is perhaps the most widely reproduced and celebrated painting of the Wagner Farm series. The third area of interest for the artist, paintings depicting the lives of people with intellectual disabilities, was inspired by the birth of his son Sam, who was born with Down syndrome. Lenz contemplated the series for eight years until, in the summer of 2005, he entered the first major painting of the series in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

The work

From a short distance Lenz's paintings appear to be photo realistic, but are made up of thousands of brushstrokes. Lenz starts a new painting by initially working out ideas in small pencil “thumbnail” drawings. The artist then photographs all the various elements of the image individually. These are used as the main reference material for the final painting. For a major work, he also completes an extensive array of color sketches. After the composition is fully developed, the image is drawn out carefully with pencil on a stretched canvas or board. Lenz's painting technique is quite traditional; straight oil paint is applied using small round sable brushes over a primed and warmly tinted linen canvas. Lenz's subjects are people who society has taken for granted, forgotten, or overlooked. These people are portrayed in an empathic way, and the extensive landscape surrounding the subjects describes their lives and the community beyond. Lenz incorporates various elements as metaphors to deepen the meaning of his images. Sometimes Lenz takes dramatic liberties with reality, and the use of metaphors occasionally drives the scene toward the surreal. One reoccurring theme in Lenz's work is that life's limits can be transcended with perseverance, personal heroism, and divine oversight. In “Sam and the Perfect World,” the hills of Wisconsin are a metaphor for a modern civil society that values perfection. Humankind has transformed the landscape for their own use, altering this Garden of Eden, and erected a barbed wire fence; separating Sam for the rest of the world. A halo around the sun is said to represent a deity looking down upon the handwork of humankind. Without idealization or sentimentality Lenz portrays his son with his red shirt and Oshkosh overalls to show he is like any other boy, and yet he is not. “Nevertheless,” the artist says, Sam has “something very important to say.” Lenz is influenced by the isolated figures of

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realism painter and printmaker. He is one of America's most renowned artists and known for his skill in depicting modern American life and landscapes. Born in Nyack, New York, to a ...

, the regionalist sensibility of

Grant Wood Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891February 12, 1942) was an American artist and representative of Regionalism (art), Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for ''America ...

, and by the symbolic meaning infused in the people and objects of

Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist and one of the best-known American artists of the middle 20th century. Though he considered himself to be an "abstractionist," Wyeth was primarily a realis ...

. The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition first place award also entitled Lenz to paint a portrait of a remarkable American for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's permanent collection. On May 9, 2009, the Gallery unveiled Lenz's historic portrait of

Eunice Kennedy Shriver Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (née Kennedy, July 10, 1921 – August 11, 2009) was an American philanthropist. Shriver was a member of the Kennedy family by birth, and a member of the Shriver family through her marriage to Sargent Shriver, wh ...

, the first portrait the Gallery has ever commissioned of an individual who had not been a U.S. President or First Lady. The portrait depicts Mrs. Shriver with four

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries. Special Ol ...

athletes and one

Best Buddies Best Buddies International is an American nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. It consists of volunteers that create opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The program's main purpose is to allow volunteers ...

participant on the beach near her Cape Cod home. In the painting from left to right are Airika Straka (Special Olympics Wisconsin), Katie Meade (Best Buddies Iowa), Andy Leonard (Special Olympics Ohio), Loretta Claiborne (Special Olympics Pennsylvania), Mrs. Shriver, and Marty Sheets (Special Olympics North Carolina). In 2010, his commission "Wishes in the Wind", depicting three disadvantaged

children blowing

soap bubble A soap bubble (commonly referred to as simply a bubble) is an extremely thin soap film, film of soap or detergent and water enclosing air that forms a hollow sphere with an iridescent surface. Soap bubbles usually last for only a few seconds b ...

s, was hung in the Wisconsin Governor's Mansion. In 2011, newly elected Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker removed the painting and replaced it with a 140-year-old portrait of Old Abe the War Eagle. She is the most famous of all Civil War

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

Awards

Besides winning the grand prize in the 2006 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, Lenz also was included in the 2006 Midwest Edition of New American Paintings. In 2008, Lenz was awarded a Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2009 he was inducted as a fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

References

External links

''David Lenz Official Website''Auer, James. ''Mural pays homage to the bravery of children with illnesses.''

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the G ...

Sept. 20, 2000
Bub, Barry. ''Commentary: Sam and the Perfect World.'' Medicine Academic. Volume 82, Issue 2, February 2007Neary, Lynn. ''Looking History in the Eye at Portrait Gallery.'' National Public Radio: Talk of the Nation, July 13, 2006

Wisconsin State Journal The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of Septembe ...

April 22, 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenz, David 1962 births Living people Artists from Milwaukee 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists American portrait painters Photorealist artists Painters from Wisconsin 20th-century American male artists