Michael Mazur 1935-2009

Michael Mazur (1935-2009), Michael Mazur etchings: L’inferno [by] Dante; with selections from the Italian translated in an English version by Robert Pinsky (Georgetown, Mass.: Printed by Robert Townsend at R.E. Townsend Editions, [2001]). “The Italian text is excerpted from the Meridiani edition, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore.” Graphic Arts Collection (GAX), Oversize 2008-0023E. Gift of Michael Mazur.

These images from Michael Mazur’s collaboration with poet Robert Pinsky are posted in memory of Mazur, who died earlier this week at the age of seventy-three. Originally composed by Mazur in a series of monoprints—reproduced and published in 1993—the success of the project led to this etched edition, printed by Robert Townsend at R.E. Townsend Editions in 2001. More information on the project can be found at: http://www.dante-inferno.net/Pages/WelcomeDante.html

Mazur received a BA from Amherst College but courses in printmaking with Leonard Baskin at nearby Smith College convinced him to pursue a career in the visuals art. Mazur entered the School in Fine Arts at Yale University, where he received a BFA and an MFA. He taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brandeis University, before quitting to become a full-time artist at the age of forty. Recent one person exhibitions have been held at the Mary Ryan Gallery; Barbara Krakow Gallery; Fisher Gallery, USC, Los Angeles; Weil Gallery, Wheaton College; Galleria di Sottoportico, Venice; Zimmerli Museum, Rutgers University; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Stanford Museum of Art, Palo Alto.

Canto V The Lustful

…And now I can hear the notes of agony.

In sad crescendo beginning to reach my ear;
Now I am where the noise of lamentation
Comes at me in blasts of sorrow. I am where

All light is mute, with a bellowing like the ocean
Turbulent in a storm of warring winds,
The hurricane of Hell in perpetual motion

Sweeping the ravaged spirits as it rends,
Twist, and torments them.