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David Lenz (born, 1962, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American portrait painter. Since 1990 Lenz has painted intimate and highly realistic portraits of unsung Americans.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=PortalWisconsin.org - Video/Audio )〕 Lenz is best known perhaps for winning the grand prize in the 2006 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution, this inaugural competition attracted more than 4,000 entries from across the country. The resulting exhibition of 51 artists’ works were shown at the National Portrait Gallery from June 23, 2006 to February 19, 2007.〔(Baer, Andre. ''A 'Perfect' Ending to the First Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.'' Profile: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery News, Fall 2006, pp. 8-9 )〕 Lenz’s winning entry, an oil painting entitled ''Sam and the Perfect World''〔(''Sam and the Perfect World: David Lenz.'' Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery: Exhibition Finalists )〕 depicts his son Sam, who has Down syndrome, amidst an idealized rural Wisconsin landscape. ==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 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 in Ontario, Canada. These early paintings were influenced greatly by Tom Uttech, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and by the luminous light quality of Hudson River School artists Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, and Sanford Gifford.〔Hayes, Jeffery R. ''David M. Lenz: Urban and Rural Paintings of Wisconsin.'' Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee, 2004 p. 7 ISBN 0-9703613-4-3〕 After moving to the east side of Milwaukee, Lenz began to paint the neighborhoods and people of the central city. The city’s children, mostly African-American, 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.〔(Auer, James ''Moon Halo: ringed with artist's optimistic view of life.'' Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Oct. 21, 2004 )〕 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, 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.〔(Stephenson, Crocker ''Canvas & Plow: A Wisconsin Elegy.'' Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2-4-2001 (accessed 1-29-2009) )〕 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.〔( Baer, Andre, pp. 8-9 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「David Lenz」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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