Donald Lent papers

Born in 1933, Donald Lent was raised in Marblehead, MA, and served as a Russian translator in the United States Army from 1952 to 1955. He received a B.A. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he studied painting and drawing with William Dole and Howard Warshaw. Lent received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees from Yale and returned to USC, Santa Barbara, where he taught for several years. In 1970, not long after spending a year teaching at Bowdoin College, Lent came to Bates as the Dana Professor of Art and chairman of the Art Department, retiring in 1999.

At Bates, Lent taught painting, drawing and printmaking but his work and influence extended beyond the classroom. As part of a renovation of Chase Hall in the early 1970s, Lent painted a mural based on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and in 1971 during Short Term, Lent's students created a mural in downtown Lewiston which portrayed 'the world of the pedestrian.' Lent also created sets and costumes for several Bates theater productions including The Trojan Women, Love's Labours Lost, Caucasian Chalk Circle, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In addition to his numerous individual paintings and drawings, Lent's artwork illustrates several literary texts including original etchings for Alan Stephens' book, The Heat Lightning. He also collaborated with Bowdoin music professor and composer Elliot Schwartz to create Isla Vista, a presentation featuring an electronic composition and slides of drawings and paintings. The presentation was shown at Bowdoin College and on WCBB-TV.

His work has been shown throughout the country with solo exhibitions at the Esther Bear Gallery in Santa Barbara, Maine Coast Artists in Rockport, University of Maine at Orono, State University of New York, Binghamton, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bates College, and others. Two exhibitions, one at Bowdoin in 1967 and the other at the Treat Gallery at Bates in 1971, were accompanied by catalogues and essays by Marvin Sadik (Bowdoin) and Phillip Isaacson (Bates). Group exhibitions include the Grolier Society, New York; the Barone Gallery, New York; Harvard University; New York Public Library; Long Beach State College, California; and Matin Village Gallery, London.