Born in New York City in 1935, Michael Mazur received a B.A. from Amherst College, Massachusetts, in 1958, studying in his senior year at the Academia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. He went on to earn both a B.F.A. (1959) and an M.F.A. (1961) from the Yale School of Art and Architecture, New Haven, Connecticut. Mazur's first teaching position was at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1961 to 1964. He was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship for 1964-65. From 1965 to 1976, he taught at Brandeis University, and from 1976 to 1978 at Harvard University.

Mazur, an artist, teacher, and writer, has been active in reviving the monotype process. He contributed an essay to the pioneering exhibition catalogue The Painterly Print, p...