Detail: Helena Markus has been the forerunner of the passion for Japanese art and culture in Italy where it has now become, long after the rest of the Western countries, extremely fashionable.
Helena Markus graduated from Somerville College-Oxford with a B.A. and subsequently an M.A. degree in Oriental Studies (Japanese). After a stay of two years in Japan to further her studies in art and literature, she collaborated as a consultant in a Japanese Art Gallery in London.
After moving from London to Milan in the late 1970’s , she began her professional activity organising the first exhibitions of Japanese Art in Italy, in public institutions, such as museums and art foundations.
In 1986 she opened the first gallery entirely dedicated to Japanese antiquities in Italy, concentrating on Japanese prints to start with, later on including Japanese antiquities and gradually reducing her field of interest to high quality Japanese screens.
The gallery soon became one of the key points of interest for both Italian collectors and lovers of Japanese art and culture.
For the past 4 yearas she has focused exclusively on Japanese screens which explains the change in the denomination of her activity to ‘Helena Markus Antique Japanese Screens’.
All the exhibitions, both public and private, were always backed up by catalogues and publications. She was often invited to deliver lectures and presentations on the subject, therefore contributing to the diffusion of Japanese art and culture.
Many of the screens presented in the exhibitions are now housed in important Italian and international private collections and museums.
She participates in some of the most important antique fairs in Italy and Europe such as BRAFA, BOAF, MINT, Collezioni d’Arte, etc.