At IFPDA’s October Prints & Drawings Month, Museums Are Quietly Rethinking Where Works on Paper Belong
Attend print and drawing-focused sessions in person and online with LACMA, The Met, and more throughout the month of October.
For centuries, museums have treated prints and drawings as if they were museum basement dwellers. Light-sensitive and rarely displayed, they languished in study rooms and print cabinets while paintings and sculptures took center stage. This hierarchical arrangement, deeply ingrained in museum architecture for over a century, is currently being challenged. The International Fine Prints & Drawings Association's (IFPDA) Prints & Drawings Month, kicked off on October 19, offers a platform for this disruptive discourse.
Three curators from renowned institutions are leading the charge: Claire Spadafora Baes from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Jun Nakamura from Princeton University Art Museum, and James Wehn from the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Each has recently undertaken renovations or collection rehangs, providing the perfect opportunity to reevaluate where prints and drawings belong.
Traditionally, prints and drawings have been segregated by medium, a convention that Drawn Together, the collection of exhibitions presented at the month-long event, seeks to overturn. The IFPDA, initially founded in 1987 as a league for print dealers and publishers, has recently broadened its scope to include drawings. This expansion has led to a paradigm shift in how the IFPDA conducts its flagship program, renaming it from Print Month to Prints & Drawings Month.
The theme of hierarchy and integration is not confined to the IFPDA's programs. Other exhibitions in the month-long series also grapple with this tension. For instance, the Met's exhibit on Marie Bracquemond, one of the rare women who exhibited with the Impressionists under her own name, features drawings often overshadowed by her more prolific husband.
A study day on Southern Netherlandish workshop practice explores the role of Volcxken Diericx, a woman who ran a major publishing operation in a field dominated by male masters.
Even the star-studded Rembrandt pairing, a collaboration between the Morgan and Florida's Naples Art Institute, highlights the inseparability of his printmaking from his painted works.
The IFPDA's Prints & Drawings Month is a bold polemic, questioning the status quo in art history and presentation. It's an event that shouldn't be missed, offering a timely reminder that the art world is more diverse and interconnected than often recognized. For more information, visit ifpda.org/programs/print-month.
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