Pacific Asia Museum

Pacific Asia Museum was established in 1971, and its mission is to encourage cultural understanding through the arts and cultures of Asia and the Pacific Islands. The museum houses over 15,000 art works from Asia and the Pacific Islands, most notably Chinese ceramics and textiles, Japanese paintings and Buddhist art from all over Asia.

Landscapes of the Mind
Landscapes of the Mind: Chinese Paintings of Nature from the Pacific Asia Museum Collection presents traditional Chinese paintings of nature and relates their themes and symbolism to the Museum’s Chinese courtyard garden.

Chinese traditional landscape paintings, or shanshui (meaning “mountains and water”), were drawn not from nature but from the minds of artists. More idealistic than realistic, the paintings express ancient Chinese beliefs in the sacred powers of nature. Rugged mountains and rivers painted with dynamic brushstrokes suggest nature’s power, while bands of mist embracing a mountain range suggest nature’s mystery.

Chinese artists celebrate nature’s details in hua-niao (“bird-and-flower”) paintings, paying close attention to a butterfly’s wing or a flower petal. To the Chinese, much in nature is symbolic: a pair of ducks symbolizes a happy marriage, and the lotus represents purity. Nature symbols are also found in the museum’s Chinese courtyard garden.

What Symbols Mean
As you contemplate these works, consider how the materials, colors and lines of these paintings differ in Western landscape paintings. How is the symbolism of birds, animals and flowers represented in your culture?

A Link to Our Partners
Visit the Norton Simon Museum to see landscape paintings in the European tradition, and plan a visit to The Huntington to see a Japanese garden.

[General information]
Pacific Asia Museum
46 North Los Robles Avenue
Pasadena CA 91101
626.449.2742
www.pacificasiamuseum.org

Hours
Landscapes of the Mind: Chinese Paintings of Nature from the Pacific Asia Museum Collection: October 9, 2004 - January 30, 2005
Wednesday - Sunday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.;
Fridays, 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Admission
Adults $7, students and seniors $5, members and children under 12 free
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floating dandelion
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