a man twists in his straitjacket like a spastic ballet dancer.
a robed figure runs down a corridor of locked doors.
Knees drawn up, a naked man lies on a wooden bench, his arm flung forward as if swimming.
they are occupants of a "locked ward" in a Northampton mental hospital portrayed by artist Michael Mazur in a series of powerful prints on display at the Danforth Museum of Art.
Mazur made a series of lithographs from memory while volunteering in the mid-1960s as an art therapist at a Northampton hospital.
the current show, "Images from a Locked Ward," represents the first time the Danforth's complete series of 14 lithographs has been exhibited since Mazur donated the whole series to the museum, said executive director Katherine French.
"These are really expressive, really heart-rending images. Michael is peering into their torment," she said. "He's is not keeping them at a distance. I found them very loving, not cynical."
French said Mazur came of age artistically in a time that regarded insanity as the "only sane response to an insane society."
Mazur published his "Locked Ward" prints in 1965, a decade after Allen Ginsberg dedicated his groundbreaking poem "Howl" to a friend, Carl Solomon, who'd been institutionalized. just three years before in 1962, Ken Kesey had published "one Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," about a group of men driven to insanity by the excesses of an insane world.
Drawing with a lithocrayon, Mazur depicted patients with the bony angularity of anatomical diagrams. Many are partially dressed or naked, sleeping or slumped in postures of resignation and despair.
in some images, like "Bound Hands Swing," Mazur conveys patients' inner torment through their physical contortions. in others, like "the Bench," he suggests their despair and hopelessness through slack or slumping postures.
some of the most touching images, such as "Companions," depict two figures who seem to be tending to one another but in ways unrecognizable to most "healthy" people.
By displaying 11 of 14 of the prints in the smallish Library Gallery, French has conveyed the claustrophobia of what life must have been like in a locked ward.
Mazur's "Images" provides just another reason to see the Danforth's extensive Boston Printmakers 2011 North American Print Biennial.
Considered one of the most important print exhibits in North America, this show, which was juried by acclaimed sculptor and printmaker Jim Dine, offers 149 works by 120 artists. Both exhibits run through May 1.
Mazur, who died in August 2009, became, said French, "very well known and influential in the Boston art scene."
Married to poet Gail Mazur, he nurtured a strong interest in literature and created print images for Robert Pinsky's translation of Dante's "Inferno," Richard Howard's translation of Baudelaire's "Fleurs du Mal" and Robert Alter's translation of "Genesis."
French said over the decades Mazur's style evolved significantly beyond starkness of the "Locked Ward" to a "more painterly" approach.
she said she had grown to known Mazur after working with him on several shows. Several years ago, while visiting him in his studio, he "gifted" the entire "Locked Ward" series to the Danforth.
French said, as she prepared to help organize the Print Biennial and accompanying student print show on the Danforth's second floor, she decided to have the "Locked Ward" series framed and exhibited to memorialize Mazur's contributions and achievements.
she noted Mazur's strong connections to the Boston Expressionist painters the museum has been collecting and showing.
and rather than stereotype his mentally ill subjects, French said Mazur portrayed them with a compassion and willingness to take them on their own terms that was ahead of their time.
"Michael made a really sensitive interpretation of peoples' feelings and emotions," she said. "he engaged them emotionally and said to us, 'we should not be afraid to look directly into their feelings."'
THE ESSENTIALS:
WHAT: Michael Mazur, "Images from a Locked Ward"
WHEN: through May 1
WHERE: Danforth Museum of Art, 123 Union Ave., Framingham
HOURS: Noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday
ADMISSION: Adults $11, seniors $9, students $8, free for children under 17 and members
INFO: 508-620-0050, danforthmuseum.org
At the Danforth: ‘Images from a Locked Ward’
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