Art News

Puzzles of the Brain: An artist’s journey through amnesia on view at the Walters Art Museum

BALTIMORE, MD.- The Walters is partnering with the Cognitive Science Department of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts & Science at The Johns Hopkins University to present a focus show of approximately 36 works exploring the impact of severe brain damage on the life and creativity of an artist. The show will tell the story of Lonni Sue Johnson, a successful artist, who suffered severe amnesia resulting from an attack of encephalitis in late 2007. The illness caused substantial brain damage, resulting in the complete loss of artistic productivity. Through intensive art therapy led by her mother Margaret Kennard Johnson (also an accomplished artist), Johnson began to produce a portfolio of “recovery art.” Her art provides unique insight into the devastating effects of amnesia, as well as the complementary roles played by language and memory in her artistic expression. Johnson’s case gives researchers a rare