NYC Gazette

The Department of Drawings and Prints, which holds over a million drawings, prints, and illustrated books from Europe and the Americas dating back to around 1400, organizes four rotations annually in the Robert Wood Johnson, Jr. Gallery. These installations are collaborative efforts among curators and feature up to 100 objects grouped by various themes.

In 2024, JoAnn Edinburg Pinkowitz donated approximately three hundred prints by Mexican and other artists who worked in Mexico to the Museum. This donation complements her earlier contribution of twentieth-century Chinese prints from the modern woodcut movement.

JoAnn's passion for art collection began early, as she volunteered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston during her teenage years. She started collecting prints in 2009 after visiting an exhibition titled "Vida y Drama: Modern Mexican Prints" at the museum. JoAnn was particularly drawn to art with strong social and political messages. Many of these prints were published by Taller de Gráfica Popular, a printmaking collective founded in Mexico City in 1937 aimed at promoting graphic arts for the Mexican people. The workshop's influence extended to China when its artists traveled there in the 1950s, inspiring JoAnn to donate Chinese prints to The Met.

The Pinkowitz collection enriches The Met’s existing collection of Mexican prints and introduces works by previously unrepresented artists. It also enhances understanding of democratic printmaking traditions through contributions from American artists in Mexico and mid-century Chinese artists.