Label Text: Mazur's interest in and passion for Chinese paintings, gardens, and calligraphy have been translated into the making of this remarkable print from four copper plates. A fluidity of movement is evident in the brushstrokes' gestural mark-making, which traverses a broad ground of influences and inspirations, from a Yuan Dynasty scroll painting by Chao Meng-fu to Monet's Giverny water lilies. Aquatint, an intaglio method using acid for pitting the plate to hold ink in broad areas, has been burnished and scraped to achieve a wide tonality. A sense of spatial and atmospheric depth is achieved by contrasting the left side of the print, which creates distance from the viewer, to the right side of the print, which is much closer. The scale of this print is impressive and reinforces the presence of nature, enveloping the viewer with an immersion of textures and patterns. Mazur has constructed an aquatic world full of life and luminescence.
Written by Betsey Garand, Resident Artist in the Department of Art and the History of Art, Amherst College
Link to share this object record: https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2011.26 |