“Drawing is the first art of childhood. It is also the first art known to our prehistoric ancestors. Long undervalued in favor of painting and pushed aside, it has made a strong comeback in recent years in the teaching of Fine Arts, in galleries, and in museums. It was time to give this art its full dimension and to dedicate an annual festival to it—both popular and demanding—simply titled the Drawing Festival.”
FRÉDÉRIC PAJAK, directeur artistique
The Drawing Festival, created in 2023 in Arles at the initiative of Vera Michalski (president of the Libella publishing group and founder of the Jan Michalski Foundation) and Frédéric Pajak (writer, illustrator, and director of the publishing house Les Cahiers dessinés), achieved great public and critical success last spring for its third edition, with 159,000 visitors.
Its fourth edition, to be held in Arles from April 18 to May 17, 2026, will feature as its headline exhibition the group show VIVA L’ITALIA! It will bring together—thanks in particular to the generous contributions of the Collection Ramo and the Fondation William Cuendet & Atelier de Saint-Prex—prestigious names such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Savinio, Giorgio Morandi, and Lucio Fontana, as well as contemporary illustrators such as Guido Crepax, Chiara Gaggiotti, and Lorenzo Mattotti. It will also include filmmakers such as Federico Fellini and drawings by the writer Dino Buzzati.
Around forty monographic exhibitions will immerse visitors in the worlds of poetic landscape artists, exuberant humorists, bold abstract artists, striking figurative artists, and distinctive creators of outsider art. As usual, these will combine renowned artists such as Fernand Léger, Jean-Michel Alberola, Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen, Germaine Richier, Gilles Aillaud, Gérard Traquandi, and Louis Soutter, alongside lesser-known figures such as Léon Bongrain. Special attention will be given to Ceija Stojka, a Romani artist who survived the death camps, as well as to two great 17th- and 18th-century draftsmen of astonishing modernity from the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France: Nicolas Lagneau and Jean-Jacques Lequeu. The collection of major art patron Marin Karmitz will also be featured, and drawings by Philippe Katerine will be among the many surprises awaiting the public. As always, young people will play a central role, with the now unmissable exhibition The Children of Arles Exhibit and works by students from the Decorative Arts Schools of Paris, Florence, and Athens.
This fourth edition, with Éric Cantona as honorary president, is already shaping up to be an unmissable cultural and festive event, punctuated throughout by debates, meetings, guided tours, workshops, screenings, and concerts.
