Announcement
This year’s edition brings together over 80 exhibitors presenting works from Francisco Goya to Kara Walker. April 9–12 at Park Avenue Armory.
Orit Hofshi, “Ephemeral Passage” (2025), woodcut, rubbing, colored pencils drawing on handmade Kozo & Abaca paper (courtesy Cade Tomkins Projects)
We are indeed in “interesting” times, and many might agree that art serves as a form of therapy. Especially during crises, printmaking has been a significant outlet for artists, offering both therapeutic benefits and a means for critique and protest. The IFPDA Print Fair is set to feature 80 exhibitors showcasing centuries of artistic dissent, ranging from Francisco Goya to Kara Walker. This event seeks to affirm whether challenging times indeed foster great art.
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes‘s series The Disasters of War (circa 1810–20) unflinchingly portrays the brutalities of the Peninsular War. The etching “No hay que dar voces (It’s No Use Crying Out)” encapsulates a cycle of violence and despair. Goya’s prints were unpublished for 35 years following his death, likely to avoid backlash from King Ferdinand VII’s regime.
Conrad Felixmüller, a German Expressionist, created the 1921 lithograph “Im Cabaret (Self Portrait with Ernst Buchholz),” capturing the unraveling of Germany after World War I. That year, Adolf Hitler became head of the Nazi Party amid rising inflation and instability. The cabaret culture, though alluring, served as a warning against ignoring authoritarian politics.
Kara Walker has commented, “The silhouette says a lot with very little information, but that’s also what the stereotype does.” Her etching, “Resurrection Story with Patrons” (2017), employs silhouettes to explore the unsettling power dynamics and violent legacies of slavery and racial injustice in the United States.
Orit Hofshi, an Israeli artist, creates intense landscapes in large woodcuts. Her piece “Ephemeral Passage” portrays boulders and fog-obscured horizons, framing figures in a landscape of violent colors that suggest the ongoing human-made crisis in the region.
Henri Matisse’s final self-portrait, “La Tristesse du Roi (The Sorrows of the King)” (1952), is a gouache découpée where Matisse “drew with scissors” by cutting painted paper to form the composition. This technique emerged as he faced aging, arthritis, and cancer, allowing him to create iconic, large-scale works. The title refers to Rembrandt’s “David Playing the Harp before Saul,” where David plays to soothe the king’s melancholy.
The IFPDA Print Fair will be hosted at the Park Avenue Armory from April 9 to 12.
To learn more, visit fineartprintfair.org.
