Series 5: SHANSHUl and Landscape

In Chinese and Western cultural traditions, nature was expressed through painting as “Shanshui” and landscape, respectively.

Shanshui, or Chinese landscape painting, began in the Tang Dynasty and peaked during the Song and Yuan dynasties. It created an introspective world with the language of ink and brush, guided by the unique ideas of “rejoicing of the spirit” and “learning from the external world and drawing inspirations from the heart.” These paintings blended Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist philosophies, developing a unified artistic ideology.

Western landscape paintings grew out of the classical idea of “the sublime,” mixing grandeur and beauty with Romanticism. It evolved from the picturesque representations of natural scenery into Impressionism, and then there was Cézanne’s situational approach, which marked the shift of Western art from looking outward to looking inward, creating a bridge between Chinese and Western cultures.