| Robert Lentz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1946 Colorado |
| Nationality | USA |
| Field | iconography |
Robert Lentz OFM (born 1946) is an American Franciscan friar and religious icon painter.[1][2] 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.[3]
Lentz was born in rural Colorado to a family of Russian descent and of a Russian Orthodox background.[4][1][2] Lentz originally intended to enter the Franciscan order as a young man in the 1960s, joining the formation program at St. John the Baptist Province, but left before taking his vows.[3] 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.[1][2][3] His icons include fourteen large images of recently canonized saints, people of various cultures and ethnicities, and modern secular political and cultural figures.[4][5] Toby Johnson hails Lentz's icon of Harvey Milk as "a national gay treasure".[5] He later joined the Secular Franciscan Order.[3]
Some critics, such as Addison H. Hart, have criticized the works of Lentz and his student, the Jesuit William Hart McNichols, as being propaganda "to serve their own religious sociopolitical agenda".[6] Lentz and McNichols are both gay, which has caused some friction between McNichols and Church leaders.[7]
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 of the United States in 2008. After relocating he taught at St. Bonaventure University.[3]