October 15, 2009
Contact: Karen Cardinal
Accounting, Web and Marketing Manager, Mead Art Museum
413/542-2551
AMHERST, Mass.—The Mead Art Museum and Department of Art and the History of Art at Amherst College will jointly honor the admired painter and printmaker Michael Mazur, Amherst Class of 1957, with multiple events that will take place during the college’s Homecoming weekend from Friday, October 23, through Sunday, October 25. Considered by many to be one of the most distinguished artists to graduate Amherst, Mazur passed away in Cambridge, Mass., on Aug. 18.
Open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 23 to 25, a special installation of Mazur’s art in the Eli Marsh Gallery in Fayerweather Hall will showcase paintings and prints drawn from the Mead’s extensive holdings of his work. Among the many highlights of this special installation will be Mazur’s beautiful and rarely seen Amherst Serpentine series, which he worked on during his tenure as Robert Frost Fellow in 2004.
From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 24 and 25, students, alumni and members of the public are encouraged to view selections from the renowned print illustrations Mazur created for Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky’s translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy Inferno (1993) in the Mead’s Green Study Room.
The capstone event will be a public program celebrating Mazur’s life and art on Oct. 25 from noon to 1 p.m. in Fayerweather Hall’s Pruyne Hall. Featuring remarks and reminiscences by Betsey Garand, visiting artist, and Robert Sweeney, William R. Mead Professor of Art, the program will be followed by a reception to which all attendees are invited.
Mead staffers have created a page on the museum’s Web site in honor of Mazur and also posted a comprehensive list of its holdings of the artist’s pieces.
To learn more about Mazur, read obituaries in the Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix and St. Louis-Dispatch.
The Mead Art Museum houses the art collection of Amherst College, totaling more than 16,000 works. An accredited member of the American Association of Museums, the Mead participates in museums10, a regional cultural collaboration. During the academic term, the museum is open Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to midnight, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, please visit the museum’s Web site, www.amherst.edu/museums/mead, or call 413/542-2335.
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