The Verne Collection of Japanese prints and paintings was established in 1953 when my parents lived in Japan for two years. In the beginning we specialized in ukiyo-e (floating world prints). The collection included artists such as Utamaro, Hiroshige, Hokusai, Kunisada, Yoshitoshi and other important Japanese printmakers from the 18th and 19th century. With the help of contemporary Japanese print experts like Oliver Statler, Frances Blakemore, Yuji Abe and Norman Tolman, the collection grew to include sosaku hanga and contemporary Japanese prints. Artists such as Koshiro Onchi, Shiko Munakata, Kiyoshi Saito, Umetaro Azechi, Ryohei Tanaka, Katsunori Hamanishi, Toko Shinoda and many others were added from the 1960’s to the present. The shin hanga artists like Hasui, Shinsui, Kotondo, Goyo, and Hiroshi Yoshida would become an important part of the Verne Gallery in the 1980’s.
Almost one hundred years after the western artists such as Bertha Lum, Helen Hyde, and Charles Bartlett, the Verne Collection would become one of the most important galleries in the world for present day western artists in Japan. Clifton Karhu, Daniel Kelly, Brian Williams,Sarah Brayer, Joel Stewart, Micah Schwaberow, Margaret K.Johnson, and Joshua Rome would emerge as some of the leading printmakers and painters in Japan and throughout the world.
