Paul Valentine Lantz

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Paul Lantz was born Feb. 14, 1908, in Stromberg, Nebraska. Shortly after the family moved, Paul's childhood was in Montana and Missouri. Paul began to paint when he was five.  At ten he made violins in exchange for lessons in painting. He has never wanted to do anything but paint, and his determination has led him through all sorts of difficulties to achieve his goal. 

When he was fifteen Paul managed to study at the Kansas City Art Institute.  To poor for the classes he worked sweeping the floors.  At seventeen he went to New York by hopping trains, the hobo life was a fond experience.  Once he reached New York City, he worked washing dishes at night and studied with the Art Student League during the day. 

When he had finished in New York he was still faced with the need for further study, with no money to pay for the trip to Europe he was a stowaway on a freight ship to Europe. Paul's luck turned at he was caught.  Two weeks at sea he was put on a returning ship to America. 

Upon his return to New York, Paul did odd jobs in illustrating and in movie posters. The open skies of the West called again, this time to Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

"One of the youngest of the Santa Fe group of painters he has a very decided ideas of the function of art and the obligations of an artist, for he thinks that an artist owes something to life other than the chance to express himself.  He must express through his brush every day." (November 1935, page 26., Art and Artists of New Mexico) 

In 1930's the Los Poblanos Inn in Albuquerque, NM. commissioned Paul Lantz to decorate the Inn with murals.  The remaining painting's have been recovered from the Inn's changing rooms. The beautiful paintings of women and roses are used in the marketing of the lavender products from the farm. See below current images from Los Poblanos Inn and Lavender farm.

Returning to New York, Paul lived in upper New York State and painted the "Walter Edmonds country." As a result of his first and extremely successful one-man exhibition in New York City, his work was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society and by several private collectors and commissions. 

Then painted throughout the Southwest, Mexico, and New York State, doing murals, portraits and landscapes. Paul Lantz has illustrated over 30 books.  He worked in New York before entering the army in 1942. While in the service he did historical paintings, murals, and also combat art in the Philippines. After his military service he taught two years at the Kansas City Art Institute. 

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Experience the southwest and the Lantz Artwork at the Museum of New Mexico, La Fonda, and Los Poblanos.