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The Morgan Library & Museum Once the private library of financier J. Today it is a museum, independent research library, music venue, architectural landmark, and historic site.
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Pierpont Morgan—now a museum, research library, architectural landmark, and historic site in the heart of New York City. The Morgan Library & Museum began as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan, one of the preeminent collectors and cultural benefactors in the United States. A century after its founding, the Morgan maintains a unique position in the cultural life of New York City and is considered one of its greatest treasures.

“Rembrandt’s Lions: Art and Exile in the Dutch Republic” is now on view!This exhibition that brings together, for the fi...
10/23/2026

“Rembrandt’s Lions: Art and Exile in the Dutch Republic” is now on view!

This exhibition that brings together, for the first time, a remarkable group of drawings, etchings, and paintings highlighting the often overlooked but formative presence of migrants, immigrants, exiles, and refugees in the world and work of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606– 1669). It particularly focuses on stories of diaspora, or dispersed communities, that figure prominently in many of his etchings, offering a new perspective on the effects of migration on seventeenth-century life. Today, Rembrandt is seen as the quintessential Dutch artist, yet in his day the Dutch Republic was newly formed, and what it meant to be Dutch was still being defined. On view from October 23, 2026, through January 31, 2027, this exhibition illuminates a new interpretation of the artist and the world he inhabited.

This exhibition is organized by Sarah Mallory, Annette and Oscar De La Renta Assistant Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints.

"Rembrandt’s Lions: Art and Exile in the Dutch Republic" is made possible by lead support from Kenneth C. Griffin and Griffin Catalyst. Generous support is provided by the Christian Humann Foundation, the Lucy Ricciardi Family Exhibition Fund, and Gail A. Gilbert, with additional support from Mr. and Mrs. Clement C. Moore II, the Achelis & Bodman Foundation, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and Eric Blair-Joannou. This exhibition is also supported by Dutch Culture USA, a program of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the United States.

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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669), Self-Portrait with Raised Sabre, 1634. Etching with burin on paper, 124 × 102 mm. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1905; RvR 22.

Last chance to see "Hujar:Contact!" This unprecedented look into Peter Hujar's creative process closes this Sunday, Octo...
10/21/2026

Last chance to see "Hujar:Contact!" This unprecedented look into Peter Hujar's creative process closes this Sunday, October 23rd!

"Hujar:Contact" features more than 110 contact sheets and 20 enlargements from the Morgan’s Peter Hujar Collection, which includes over 5,700 contact sheets from throughout the artist’s career.

Hujar (1934–1987) began filing contact sheets and assigning them job numbers at age 21. His records make it possible to track his development—from 2 decades as a studio assistant, when he pushed himself to try work of every kind, into the late 1960s and his work as a freelancer in fashion, music, and advertising, through his mature period as a fiercely independent and influential artist in the East Village.

Many of the contact sheets bear editing marks that indicate ideas about cropping and printing and contextualize the exposures Hujar ultimately decided to enlarge. The intense, interactive quality of his portrait work comes to life in contact sheets that read as intimate pictorial narratives, revealing the nature of his attention and the unique personality of each of his subjects. As Hujar matures and struggles, and as the character of his social world changes from the 1950s through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, his contact sheets tell the nuanced story of a lifetime, a community, and an era.
Peter Hujar, (1934– 987)
Self-portraits at 189 Second Avenue, 1974, job 620
The Morgan Library & Museum, Peter Hujar Collection, New York purchased on the Charina Endowment Fund, 2013, 2013.108:8.2110. Courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Ortuzar, New York; © The Peter Hujar Archive / Artists Rights Society (ARS).

“Friends Who Came to See Me: Drawings from John Ashbery’s Collection” closes this Sunday, October 25!This exhibition off...
10/20/2026

“Friends Who Came to See Me: Drawings from John Ashbery’s Collection” closes this Sunday, October 25!

This exhibition offers an intimate look into the artistic world of John Ashbery (1927–2017), bringing together works from his personal collection alongside texts from the Morgan’s holdings. At its center is a network of friendships that shaped his artistic practice.

Featuring works by Joe Brainard, Jane Freilicher, Fairfield Porter, Larry Rivers, and R. B. Kitaj, the exhibition includes portraits of Ashbery, early collages, and drawings that reflect a shared sensibility between Ashbery and his circle.

Paired with manuscripts and printed texts, these works show a practice that moved between page and picture, where writing and image informed one another. What emerges is a life shaped through exchange, where friendship and art are inseparable, forming a kind of living collage.
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R.B. Kitaj, Untitled (Portrait of John Ashbery), 1979. Charcoal and pastel, 22 5/16 x 15 1/4 inches. The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of David K. Kermani, from the Collection of John Ashbery, 2019.162. The Estate of RB Kitaj.
[Morgan library & museum, Ashbery, New york school poetry, Visual art, Contemporary art]

Coming soon! "Ragtime: Cakewalk in Pianoland" opens November 13! This exhibition introduces a new generation of visitors...
10/19/2026

Coming soon! "Ragtime: Cakewalk in Pianoland" opens November 13!

This exhibition introduces a new generation of visitors to ragtime—one of the first truly global popular music styles. Tracing the genre’s evolution from its roots in West African rhythms and European musical traditions to its pivotal role in the emergence of jazz, the exhibition explores ragtime’s vibrant cultural legacy. Through seven thematic sections, it examines the music’s historical foundations, its rise to mainstream popularity, and its crossover into Broadway, film, and popular culture, offering a rich and comprehensive portrait of ragtime’s enduring dynamism and influence. Featuring selections from The John Davis Collection of Early Printed Musical African Americana as the foundation of the exhibition, it will also include works from the Morgan's holdings as well as from a number of private collections.

Visitors will encounter the fascinating juxtaposition between two of the genre’s greatest figures, Ernest Hogan (1865–1909), a pioneering Black songwriter who broke boundaries by creating a sound that resonated with the Black working classes, and Scott Joplin (1868–1917), a master of composition who elevated ragtime to a sophisticated art form. Their combined compositional range allowed for both the expression of the Black community’s experiences and aspirations through catchy melodies and relatable narratives, and the opportunity to challenge performative racial stereotypes by offering dignified and accomplished representations of Black Americans.
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"Ragtime: Cakewalk in Pianoland" is made possible by Katharine J. Rayner and Denise Littlefield Sobel, with generous support from Brook Berlind, Mark Jenkins and Karen Holland, and Mr. G. Scott Clemons and Ms. Karyn Joaquino. Additional support was provided by Henrietta Paige Hakes and the Charles E. Pierce Jr. Fund for Exhibitions.
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Scott Joplin. Maple leaf rag / St. Louis : John Stark & Son, 1899, front cover. The Morgan Library & Museum, PMC 2830.

In memory of Roger S. Wieck (1952-2026)Earlier this year, we mourned the loss of Roger Wieck, former Melvin R. Seiden Cu...
10/18/2026

In memory of Roger S. Wieck (1952-2026)

Earlier this year, we mourned the loss of Roger Wieck, former Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts. Roger joined the Morgan in 1989 and devoted more than three decades to the study and stewardship of its extraordinary collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, serving as head of the department from 2015 to 2025. He curated numerous exhibitions, including the Morgan's first-ever show devoted to Hebrew-illumination; the first in America to focus on Armenian manuscripts; and the popular "Medieval Bestseller: The Book of Hours." Wieck had a special gift for engaging broad audiences and making the esoteric accessible. Visitors to his exhibitions left enlightened and readers of his books will continue to be rewarded by his erudition for years to come.

In these images, you can see some of Wieck's favorite works in our collection including a small book containing Latin prayers and music for liturgical processions representing Wieck’s long-standing interest in and profound knowledge of the Catholic liturgy and a miniature that was first displayed in his innovative exhibition "Now and Forever: The Art of Medieval Time." You can see more of Wieck's favorites and the works he graciously donated to the Morgan in the Lower Level Gallery and the East Room of the historic library.

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1. Roger S. Wieck, 2017 © The Morgan Library & Museum, Photography by Janny Chiu.
2. Parliament of Heaven, single leaf from a Book of Hours, illuminated by the Master of Jacques de Luxembourg. France, northeast or Paris, ca. 1465. The Morgan Library and Museum, 2017; MS M.1207
3. Two Angels Holding the Eucharist and Nuns in Procession. Processional, in Latin France, Paris, 1505–15. The Morgan Library and Museum, 2019; MS M.1214, fols. 119v–120r
4. Sacred Bleeding Host of Dijon, France, Dijon, 1530s. The Morgan Library and Museum, 2026; MS M.1266r.

On this day in 1854, Oscar Wilde was born. Author, poet, and q***r icon, Wilde remains one of the most celebrated litera...
10/16/2026

On this day in 1854, Oscar Wilde was born. Author, poet, and q***r icon, Wilde remains one of the most celebrated literary figures of the 19th century.

One of the Morgan’s great literary treasures is the earliest surviving manuscript of "The Picture of Dorian Gray," which formed the basis for the novel’s first printed edition. The manuscript reveals Wilde’s extensive revisions as he shaped his only novel, including changes to the characters, narration, and ho******ic exchanges between Dorian, Basil Hallward, and Lord Henry Wotton.

It also preserves the novel’s original closing lines, in which a “dead body” lies on the floor “with a knife in its heart.” The manuscript entered the Morgan’s collection in 1913, acquired from collector and financier Eugene Meyer Jr. for $2,500.

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Oscar Wilde (1854-1900). The picture of Dorian Gray: autograph manuscript signed. From the Louis I. Haber (sale, Dec. 8, 1909, lot 1776) and Eugene Meyer, Jr. collections. MA 883

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[morgan library and museum, new york city museum, gothic novel, victorian writer, lgbtq history, spooky season]

10/15/2026

Last chance to see "Hujar:Contact!"

This once in a lifetime exhibition closes Sunday, October 25! "Hujar:Contact" offers an unprecedented look into the life, times, and creative evolution of a master photographer. The exhibition features more than 110 contact sheets and 20 enlargements from the Morgan’s Peter Hujar Collection, which includes over 5,700 contact sheets from throughout the artist’s career.

When you think of Christo (1935–2020), you might picture monuments and landscapes transformed into temporary, site-speci...
10/14/2026

When you think of Christo (1935–2020), you might picture monuments and landscapes transformed into temporary, site-specific works of art. But these iconic projects represent only part of a rich artistic legacy.

A group of drawings recently donated to the Morgan Library & Museum by the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation offers an intimate view into Christo's formative period at Sofia's Academy of Fine Arts, revealing his remarkable craftsmanship and gift for close observation.

This body of work offers a less familiar perspective on the artist and new insight into ideas that would resonate throughout his career. Read this blog post by Esther Levy, Curatorial Assistant in the Morgan’s Modern and Contemporary Drawings Department, to learn more about these extraordinary drawings: https://www.themorgan.org/blog/new-acquisition-early-christo-drawings

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Image 1: Untitled (Portrait of a Farmer) [drawing], undated, recto, 2026.140
Image 2: Plovdiv Factory [drawing], 1951, recto, 2026.143
Image 3: Untitled (Portrait of a Man with Hat) [drawing], undated, recto, 2026.139
Image 4: Storefront (Project) [drawing], 1964, recto, 2026.149

All images by Christo (1935-2020). Collection of The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation. © 2026 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation. Photography by Charles Roussel

Larry Rivers’s portrait of John Ashbery is an early example of his loose, energetic drawing style. Created around 1950, ...
10/13/2026

Larry Rivers’s portrait of John Ashbery is an early example of his loose, energetic drawing style. Created around 1950, the figure is built up through repeated marks, erasures, and smudges, leaving traces of this subtractive process on the surface.

Rivers, who began his career as a jazz saxophonist before turning to painting, carried a similar sense of rhythm and improvisation into his visual work.

He met Ashbery in 1949, alongside writers including Frank O’Hara and Kenneth Koch, and his work soon began to reflect the formal influence of their poetry. In 1962, Ashbery described Rivers as a “baroque artist,” pointing to his tendency to build up and break down an image at once. Through drawing and redrawing, Rivers reduces detail to its essentials, bringing the subject into focus through what remains.


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Larry Rivers
The Bronx 1925–2002, Southampton, NY
Untitled (Portrait of John Ashbery), ca. 1950
Graphite
Gift of David K. Kermani, from the Collection of John Ashbery
[Morgan library & museum, Ashbery, New york school poetry, Visual art, Contemporary art]

Rachel Martin is an artist whose drawings blend traditional Indigenous symbols with contemporary motifs that reflect her...
10/12/2026

Rachel Martin is an artist whose drawings blend traditional Indigenous symbols with contemporary motifs that reflect her lived experience.

An enrolled Tlingit member, Martin incorporates Northwest Coast formline drawing into her visual language. While adhering to precise formline technique of continuous swelling and tapering lines, Martin embraces the imperfection of drawing by hand and allows for a greater degree of freedom in her mark-making. The figure in this drawing wears a Chilkat robe, most commonly worn by high-ranking tribal members on ceremonial occasions such as dances and community celebrations. The wearer intentionally sports the robe in a sideways and backwards manner to indicate status. The robe's woven pattern shows a matriarchal figure with long nails, a reference to the matrilineal society from which the Tlingits originate, while features such as the extended tongue and contemporary sneakers demonstrate Martin's signature sense of humor. In this way, Martin explores the complexities of carrying ancient traditions into a modern context.


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Rachel Martin, "She's a 10 but she boils herring eggs until they're all white and rubbery [drawing]", 2024. Archival colored pencil on archival paper.
The Morgan Library & Museum, 2025.70

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