Streams and Mountains without End: Landscape Paintings from China, Korea, and Japan

Drawing upon the Sackler Museum’s permanent collection, as well as on one of the most distinguished private collections of Chinese painting in the country, this exhibition displays an impressive array of East Asian landscape paintings. Landscapes emerged as the principal subject of Chinese painting by the Song dynasty (960–1279) and have remained preeminent among the arts of East Asia for over 1000 years. The Chinese-style depiction of landscapes spread in the 14th and 15th centuries, soaring to popularity in Korea during the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910) and in Japan during the Muromachi period (1392–1573). Landscapes—whether real or imagined—reflected the philosophical search for the principles that underlie the unity and harmony of nature, a search intricately linked to Daoism.