Maurice Pasternak - prints and biography

Maurice Pasternak (born 1946, Brussels) is a Belgian artist best known for his mastery of mezzotint, alongside a distinguished career as a draftsman and teacher. He studied at Belgium’s National School of Visual Arts in Brussels during the 1960s, where he developed a strong foundation in drawing and printmaking. His early training instilled a lifelong commitment to exploring the subtleties of light, shadow, and form.

After completing his studies, Pasternak established himself as one of Europe’s leading practitioners of mezzotint, a demanding engraving technique rarely attempted by contemporary artists. He paired this work with drawings in graphite, pastel, and mixed media, creating a body of art that is both technically refined and emotionally charged. His prints often focus on the human figure, depicting presence and absence with equal weight. Themes of intimacy, memory, and the passage of time run throughout his work, conveyed through delicate tonal gradations and carefully balanced compositions.

Since 1982, Pasternak has also served as a professor of art at Belgium’s National Academy, where he has guided generations of students while continuing his own practice. His dual role as educator and artist has allowed him to pass along the traditions of printmaking while encouraging experimentation and innovation.

Over the course of his career, Pasternak has received more than twenty international prizes, including awards from major print competitions in Europe and the United States. His work has been exhibited widely, with solo and group shows across Europe, Asia, and North America. Today his prints, drawings, and pastels are represented in many public and private collections, including major museums in Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States.

Maurice Pasternak’s art is distinguished by its ability to unite technical precision with philosophical depth. Through mezzotint’s velvety shadows and graphite’s subtle textures, he captures both the physical and the ephemeral, offering viewers a meditation on human experience that is at once personal and universal.