'The wise find pleasure in water (streams); the virtuous find pleasure in mountain' The Analects of Confucius, c.6th–5th century BC

China's magnificent scenery of mountains and streams has inspired its scholars, poets and painters for thousands of years. The mystical mountains with soaring peaks and misty clouds are believed to be the realm of immortals. In times of political turmoil, mountains and streams became a spiritual retreat for scholars to find solace, to calm and purify the mind. This exhibition draws on Chinese material from the National Gallery of Victoria's important collection of Asian art, concentrating on Chinese landscape paintings from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century. The exhibition explores the philosophical and aesthetic aspects of 'Sacred mountains, lands of the immortals', 'Landscape as spiritual retreat' and 'Landscapes of the mind'.

A National Gallery of Victoria Touring Exhibition.