Director’s Foreword
- Christoph Heinrich, Frederick and Jan Mayer Director, Denver Art Museum
Since an initial gift in 1915, the Denver Art Museum has built an expansive and rich collection of Asian art that allows us to display a versatile array of art from across the continent, and in particular from Japan. With the recent generous gift of Dr. John Fong and Dr. Colin Johnstone, the museum is now able to uniquely emphasize our collection of ceramics and ink paintings by Japanese women artists from the 1600s to the 1900s.
Collected over decades, this extensive collection, including a study collection, consists of about 550 objects and lends itself to a range of exhibitions, research projects, and the study of connoisseurship. Encompassing art by Buddhist nuns, teashop owners, and literati artists among others, the collection allows us to tell a more comprehensive and inclusive story of art in early modern and modern Japan that illuminates the roles and successes of women artists. We hope to bring these artists to the public’s attention both through special exhibitions and in our permanent galleries.
The Denver Art Museum is proud to open its doors to students and researchers and is committed to developing educational programs aimed at advancing the field and promoting the study of these underrepresented artists. Experts and students are invited to examine and handle rare and important works alongside a wide range of copies (some made during the artists’ lifetime and some later imitations), through programming and object workshops geared at honing skills of connoisseurship.
This larger project prompted by Drs. Fong and Johnstone’s gift has led to the museum’s first digital publication. Freely available online to anyone interested, the digital catalog furthers the museum’s commitments to raising awareness and to equity and accessibility.
I would like to thank Tianlong Jiao (former Joseph de Heer Curator of Asian Art) and Professor Andrew Maske (Wayne State University) for inviting Dr. Fong and Dr. Johnstone into the museum’s orbit and conceiving of an exhibition. Einor Cervone, Associate Curator of Arts of Asia, and the museum’s curatorial and exhibitions teams transformed those initial forays and research into a beautiful and engaging exhibition, Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection. Finally, I am grateful for the support of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, the Blakemore Foundation, the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign, and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD).