Mead Art Museum Honors Michael Mazur, Distinguished Artist and Amherst College Alumnus, With Exhibition Opening May 25
AMHERST, Mass. - The Mead Art Museum at Amherst College celebrates the memory of Michael Mazur with Perspectives on Michael Mazur, a new career-spanning exhibition of his work opening May 25. Mazur, one of the most distinguished artists to graduate from Amherst, would have marked his 60th reunion year this spring.
The exhibition draws on the Mead's extensive holdings of Mazur's work, as well as generous loans from classmates, H. Axel Schupf and Jane and Bob Keiter, Class of 1957. Many of the objects in Perspectives on Michael Mazur have never before been shown in public, including his senior thesis An Image of Salome. The exhibition also includes examples of his vibrant pastels, large-scale gestural paintings and well-known prints, such as those that Mazur created for The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation by Robert Pinsky, a former U.S. poet laureate.
Michael Mazur (American, 1935 - 2009). "Self-Portrait," 1986.
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The biggest challenge with this show was whittling down the list of wonderful Mazur works to include in the exhibition," said Vanja Malloy, curator of American art at the Mead, who organized the exhibition. "Mazur had an impressive range to his oeuvre and the Mead is very fortunate to have such a strong collection of his work."
Mazur often depicted nature in his art during a 50-year career as an artist, and his late paintings in particular demonstrate a lush, fluid painting technique that is reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism. As a printmaker, Mazur demonstrated exceptional command of wide-ranging techniques, including aquatint, lithography, and monotype.
He was also a teacher and arts advocate who taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, Brandeis University and Harvard University. He was active on the boards of Boston's Artist Foundation, the Council for the Arts and Humanities and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Mazur returned to Amherst College in 2004 as a Robert Frost Fellow to work in the printmaking studio. During his fellowship, students interacted, observed and assisted him with his prints.
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This exhibition celebrates an immensely talented painter and printmaker, who not only impacted the art world through his work and teaching, but also made a lasting impact on those he knew at Amherst College," Malloy said.
There will be an opening reception for Perspectives on Michael Mazur, and the Mead's other summer exhibitions, May 25 at 5 p.m. in the museum. The reception is free and open to the public. Gail Mazur, an accomplished poet and Michael Mazur's wife, and Betsey Garand, senior resident artist at Amherst College, will give a gallery talk on Mazur's work May 26 at 2:30 p.m. The talk is also free and open to the public.
Gail Mazur and Betsey Garand provided guidance in the preparation of the exhibition. Michael Mazur's work is represented by Ryan Lee Gallery in New York and by Barbara Krakow in Boston.
Established with funds bequeathed by William Rutherford Mead (Class of 1867), a partner in the storied architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White, the Mead Art Museum holds the 19,000-object art collection of Amherst College, representing a wide range of historical periods, national schools and artistic media. In addition to more than 100 works by Mazur, the Mead's collection includes American and European paintings, Mexican ceramics, Tibetan scroll paintings, an English paneled room, ancient Assyrian carvings, West African sculpture, Korean ceramics, and Japanese prints, along with fine holdings of American furniture and silver.
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