Annual Master Drawings Symposium 2026

Tuesday, February 3, 4PM
Master Drawings
Villa Albertine, 972 5th Avenue

Annual Master Drawings Symposium: Presentation of the 2025 Ricciardi Prize Winner

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

Sponsored by the Tavolozza Foundation

Events are free but registration is required. Registration opens on January 7, 2026.

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New scholarship by authors under 40 is the focus of the annual Master Drawings Symposium, returning in 2026 for its tenth year. The journal awards the most groundbreaking contributions with a cash prize and an opportunity to present their findings in front of drawings enthusiasts. This year, 2025 runner-up Femke Speelberg will offer a fascinating analysis of a rare, monumental design for a sacrament house attributed to the Late-Gothic German architect Lorenz Lechler. In focusing on Lechler's design, and its immediate context, Speelberg, Curator of Historic Ornament, Design, and Architecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illuminates the little understood but fundamental role of drawing in the design practice of Gothic artists and craftsmen across a range of disciplines. Ms. Speelberg will be joined by the soon-to-be-announced 2026 prize winner for a dynamic afternoon of talks.

The Master Drawings Symposium celebrates recipients of the Ricciardi Prize. Learn more about the prize and the past winners here.

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This DRAWINGS WEEK 2026 event is organized by The Drawing Foundation and Master Drawings, and in association with Master Drawings New York 2025. 

This event is made possible through the generous support of the Tavolozza Foundation. 

 

                            

Image: Lorenz Lechler and workshop, Design for a Monumental Sacrament House (detail), 1502. Pen and two types of ink (carbon black and iron gall) over blind ruling, 17th-century inscription in pen and ink, on parchment. Purchase, The Cloisters Collection, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, and Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2022, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York