Master Drawings New York is proud to present a suite of engaging events, in partnership with The Drawing Foundation, beginning January 28, for the 20th edition of the fair taking place from January 30 through February 7, 2026, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. From Old Masters to 19th-century innovators, visitors will have the opportunity to explore the world of works on paper through exhibitions, tours, study room visits, lectures, panel discussions, and behind-the-scenes access at leading cultural institutions.

For its 20th anniversary, the fair—the largest edition to date with 36 exhibitors—will feature an expanded slate of programs, bringing together leading curators, scholars, and collections specialists to explore the richness and evolving methodologies of drawings research. Highlights include an in-depth study of the Princeton Drawings Collection with Laura Giles and Jun Nakamura; new scholarship on Netherlandish draftsmanship presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Stijn Alsteens, Susanne Bartels, Daan van Heesch, and Joanna Sheers Seidenstein; and a special Cooper Hewitt study-room session on Winslow Homer featuring Femke Speelberg and the newly named 2026 Ricciardi Prize winner. 

The programs will engage with major themes such as national identity and early American draftsmanship at The Winter Show; collecting histories at Adam Williams Fine Art; curatorial approaches to Northern drawings at Sotheby’s; and material experimentation through exhibitions at Bard Graduate Center, the Morgan Library & Museum, and the Hispanic Society Museum & Library. Together, these events offer deep insights and rare access to the ideas shaping the field of works on paper today.

Program Schedule

Wednesday, January 28 — Princeton, NJ

• 1:00 PM - Face to Face & Exploring the Princeton Drawings Collection
  • Where: Princeton University Art Museum (45 Elm Drive, Princeton University, NJ)
  • Event type: Curator Exhibition Tour and Study Room Session
    • Led by Laura Giles, Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Princeton University Art Museum, and Jun Nakamura, Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings, Princeton University Art Museum, in Princeton.

Friday, January 30 — Upper West Side & Park Avenue

• 11:00 AM - Drawing Time: Viollet-le-Duc’s Investigations of Natural and Human Histories
  • Where: Bard Graduate Center Gallery (18 West 86th Street)
  • Event type: Curator Exhibition Tour
    • Led by Martin Bressani, the Co-curator of the exhibition and the William C. Macdonald Emeritus Professor at McGill University's Peter G-H Fu School of Architecture in Montréal.
• 2:30 PM - Lines of a Nation: Early American Drawings and Their Legacy
  • Where: The Winter Show, Park Avenue Armory (643 Park Avenue)
  • Event type: Presentations and Panel Discussion
    • Featuring Mark Mitchell, Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, Yale University Art Gallery; Christina Michelon, Pamela and Peter Voss Curator of Prints & Drawings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Stuart P. Feld, Collector and President & Director of Hirschl & Adler.
    • Moderated by: Amy Torbert, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of American Art, Saint Louis Art Museum

Saturday, January 31 — Upper East Side

• 5:30 PM - Collector Conversations: Talking Drawings
  • Where: The Society for the History of Collecting (Adam Williams Fine Art, 24 East 80th Street)
  • Event type: Panel Discussion
    • Led by Jennifer Tonkovich, Eugene and Clare Thaw Curator of Drawings and Prints at The Morgan Library & Museum.

Sunday, February 1 — Upper East Side & Rockefeller Center

• 10:30 AM - Considering Collections: New Curatorial Approaches to Northern Drawings
  • Where: Trois Crayons at Sotheby’s New York (945 Madison Avenue)
  • Event type: Presentations and Panel Discussion
    • Featuring Olenka Horbatsch, Curator of Dutch, Flemish and German prints and drawings, 1400-1800, British Museum, London; Sarah Mallory, Annette and Oscar de la Renta Assistant Curator of Drawings and Prints at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York; Elizabeth R. Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; Anita V. Sganzerla, Curator for the Katrin Bellinger Collection, London.
    • Moderators: Alesa Boyle, Co-founder & CEO, Trois Crayon, London, and Greg Rubinstein, Head of Old Master & Early British Drawings, Worldwide at Sotheby's.
• 6:00 PM - Old Master Drawings
  • Where: Christie’s New York (20 Rockefeller Plaza)
  • Event type: Lecture
  • More information forthcoming.

Monday, February 2 — The Met & Cooper Hewitt

• 10:30 AM - Drawing in the Netherlands, ca. 1550–1650: New Research
  • Where: The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue)
  • Event type: Curator Presentations
    • Featuring Stijn Alsteens, Director, Fondation Custodia, Paris; Susanne Bartels, Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Curatorial Fellow, Division of European and American Art, Harvard Art Museums; Daan van Heesch, Head of the Department of Prints and Drawings, Royal Library of Belgium (KBR); Joanna Sheers Seidenstein, Associate Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  • Sponsored by the Indian Point Foundation and The Delegation of Flanders to the USA
• 2:00 PM - Winslow Homer at Cooper Hewitt
  • Where: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (2 East 91st Street)
  • Event type: Curator Study Room Session
  • Sponsored by the Tavolozza Foundation
  • Scholar Presentations with Femke Speelberg, Curator of Historic Ornament, Design, and Architecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, runner-up of the 2025 Ricciardi Prize, and the to-be-announced winner of the 2026 Ricciardi Prize.

Tuesday, February 3 — Villa Albertine

• 4:00 PM - Annual Master Drawings Symposium 2026
  • Where: Master Drawings at Villa Albertine (972 Fifth Avenue)
  • Event type: Scholar Presentations
  • Sponsored by the Tavolozza Foundation

Wednesday, February 4 — Institute of Fine Arts

• 5:30 PM - Drawings in the Round: Perspectives on French Drawings
  • Where: The Conservation Center, NYU Institute of Fine Arts (1 East 78th Street)
  • Event type: Presentations and Panel Discussion
  • More information forthcoming

Thursday, February 5 — Midtown & Upper East Side

• 9:30 AM - Renoir Drawings
  • Where: Morgan Library & Museum (225 Madison Avenue)
  • Event type: Curator Exhibition Tour
    • Led by Sarah Lees, Research Associate, The Morgan Library & Museum.
• 5:00 PM - Sketch Night: Drawing in the Galleries
  • Where: The Frick Collection (1 East 70th Street)

Friday, February 6 — Washington Heights & Gramercy Park

• 10:00 AM - Spanish Style Illuminated: A Conversation at the Hispanic Society
  • Where: Hispanic Society Museum & Library (613 West 155th Street)
  • Event type: Curator Talk and Private Exhibition Viewing. 
    • Curator Talk led by Amanda Wunder, exhibition curator and professor of History and Art History at the City University of New York (Lehman College and CUNY Graduate Center).
• 2:00 PM - The Importance of Jewelry in Portraiture Drawing: Symbols, Power, and Secrets
  • Where: West Harlem Art Fund at the National Arts Club (15 Gramercy Park South)
  • Event type: Panel Discussion
  • More information forthcoming.

For more information and event registration, please click HERE.

Image courtesy of Master Drawings New York