About

My name is Helena Markus; I graduated from Somerville College-Oxford with a B.A. and subsequently an M.A. degree in Japanese Language & Literature in 1976. After a 2 year period in Japan to further my studies in art and literature, I collaborated as a consultant at a Japanese Art Gallery in London. 

After moving from London to Milan in the late 1970s, I started my professional activity by doing some of the first exhibitions of Japanese Art in Italy, beginning within public institutions, such as museums and art foundations.

In 1986 I opened the first gallery entirely dedicated to Japanese antiquities in Italy concentrating on Japanese prints and gradually reducing my field of interest to high-quality Japanese screens. I organized about two exhibitions a year usually monothematic. My gallery soon became one of the key points of interest for both Italian collectors and lovers of Japanese art and culture. All the exhibitions, both public and private, were always accompanied by catalogues and publications of which I enclose the list.

I was often invited to deliver lectures and presentations on the subject, therefore contributing to the diffusion of the art and culture of Japan. Many of the screens I presented in my exhibitions are now housed in important Italian and international private collections. I closed my gallery a few years ago to continue my research.

The culmination of this resulted in an exhibition of my collection of Japanese screens, which took place in one of the most prestigious spaces in the centre of Milan in an area of about 500 sq/m. The event had large press coverage (press release enclosed), which created large public interest and attendance.

The published books:

"Hiroshige Tokaido'". 53 Stations on the Tokaido, Milano Scheiwiller, 1978, 156 p., 62 ill.

 It is the first exhaustive study on the series and, in particular, on the various editions of the prints. È il primo studio esaustivo su questa serie pubblicato in Italia.

Utamaro. The Poetry of Female Beauty:) Firenze, Giusti, 1981, 100 pp., 36 ill.

Il libro e' stato pubblicato in occasione della mostra di Utamaro, allestita e curata dall'autrice nel 1981 alla Biblioteca Trivulziana del Castello Sforzesco di Milano. (Exhibition curated by H.M. took place in Biblioteca Trivulziana of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan.)

The first book on the artist published in Italian.

Surimono. "Stampe Augurali nel Giappone del '700 e '800"( Surimono: Privately Published Japanese prints). Exhibition in Centro Piemontese di Studi sul Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Firenze, Giusti, 1983, pp. xxiii-96, 98 ill.

Again the first book on the subject published in Italy. The book accompanied the first exhibition on Surimono, till then in Italy virtually unknown. The exhibition was curated by H.M. for the ‘Centro Piemontese di Studi sul Medio ed Estremo Oriente’ 1983.

"I Secoli d'Oro del Paravento Giapponese", ( The Golden Age of Japanese Screens), Milano, 1990.

"I Grandi Maestri delle Stampe Giapponesi", (The Great Masters of Japanese Prints) Milano, 1991.

"Surimono", Milano, 1992.

Trenta – Para- Venti, 30 Anni Per Una Collezione sec. XVI-XIX (Thirty screens, 30 Years for a Collection, XVI-XIX c), April 2007, Exhibition in Palazzo Crivelli, Milan