TitleS.P.
Artist
Michael Mazur
(1935 - 2009)
Date1986
MediumPastel on BFK Rives paper
DimensionsSheet size: 32 × 30 in.
Framed: 37 1/4 × 34 1/2 × 2 1/4 in.
SignedSigned at bottom right: "Mazur".
MarkingsWatermark: BFK RIVES / FRANCE
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, March 19, 2003
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, Anonymous Gift, 2003
Object number2003.11
Label TextMost closely allied with the New England area, Michael Mazur was born and raised in New York City before attending Yale University as an undergraduate, completing his M.F.A. there in 1961. Mazur first came to prominence with his haunting series of monotypes created when the artist was working as an art therapist at a mental institution. Since that time Mazur has worked in a variety of media including painting, drawing, and most successfully in monotype printmaking and his style has encompassed a range of expressionist, realist, and abstract styles. Mazur has held a number of teaching positions including the Rhode Island School of Design, Brandeis University, and Harvard University and through his works and his teaching he has helped revive interest in the monotype printmaking process.This particular pastel drawing is an unusual subject for the artist as he has most often explored the landscape in his paintings, drawings, and prints over the course of his career. It is rendered in the bravura expressionist style that exemplifies his work from the mid-1980s and shows Mazur in his studio before one of his larger works. According to the artist, the Self-Portrait was inspired by the self-portrait of Edwin Dickinson in the National Academy's collection. Mazur was the subject of a retrospective at the Decordova Museum in 1998 and had a major print retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2000.
