"For nearly four decades, the International Fine Print Dealers Association's annual print fair has been a crash course in how artists approach creating in multiples. In 2026, that picture will grow larger. The IFPDA will officially become the International Fine Prints & Drawings Association, and when the print fair opens next spring, its broaden mandate will be on view via the 77 exhibitors who specialize in dealing in aritsts' drawings."
"This past March, the fair was already showing signs of outgrowing the prints category. The 2025 edition drew more than 21,000 visitors, a record that dealers attributed to a surge of interest from younger collectors and institutions, with VIP registrations jumping 57 percent. As ARTnews reported at the time, Gen Z and millennial buyers have been driving much of this momentum, pouring into the prints market as other sectors cooled."
"This new change is more than cosmetic, executive director Jenny Gibbs told ARTnews this week. "It is a mystery to me why there is such a bifurcation in the market between prints and drawings," she said. Every museum has a department of prints and drawings. Yet the auction houses put drawings with paintings. That's how collectors have been taught to understand the medium."
The IFPDA will become the International Fine Prints & Drawings Association in 2026 and will add drawings dealers to its membership. The 2025 fair drew more than 21,000 visitors, a record, with VIP registrations increasing 57 percent, driven largely by Gen Z and millennial buyers. The change follows the organization's last structural expansion in 1990, when print publishers were admitted. The organization completed the legal paperwork to enact the name change after a membership vote. The expansion will roll out in stages: the 2026 fair (April 9–12) will be the first under the updated guidelines and will include Sigrid Freundorfer Fine Art as a drawings-focused exhibitor.
Read at ARTnews.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]