Image: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is presenting ‘Mountains of the Mind: A Chinese Landscape Journey,’ a selection of Chinese landscape paintings that examines the spiritual and philosophical meanings attached to mountains, rivers, clouds and other elements of the natural world. The exhibition is installed in the museum’s second-floor Chinese galleries and is listed in the museum’s fall guide through October 24, 2026.
The presentation brings together idyllic landscapes by Chinese ink painters from the past and present. Rather than treating landscape solely as a record of scenery, the exhibition frames it as a vehicle for contemplation, connecting pictorial representations of nature with the ancient Chinese tradition of mountain worship and with Daoist philosophy.
According to the museum, many of the works use the contours of sacred mountains and the movement of water and clouds to invite a personal, cultural and spiritual encounter with nature. In this visual system, mountains are personified as venerable deities, while rivers become their veins, mists their breath, foliage their hair and rocks their bones.
One identified work is Wang Jian’s ‘Thousand Trees on Azure Peaks in the Style of Dong Yuan,’ painted in 1668. Wang Jian (1598–1677) was a Chinese painter of the Qing dynasty, and the work belongs to the reign of the Kangxi emperor, which lasted from 1662 to 1722. Executed in ink on paper, the painting is part of the Asian Art Museum’s collection and was acquired through a museum purchase.
The reference to Dong Yuan in Wang Jian’s title points to the importance of artistic lineage within Chinese landscape painting, although the available exhibition material does not identify the complete list of artists or works included. The museum’s description emphasizes continuity across time, presenting historical ink traditions alongside work by more recent painters under a shared focus on landscape as a mode of reflection.
‘Mountains of the Mind’ is included with general admission at the Asian Art Museum, also known as the Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture. The museum is located at 200 Larkin Street in San Francisco. Its stated public hours are Thursday from 1 to 8 p.m. and Friday through Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; it is closed Tuesday and Wednesday. The exhibition is listed as ongoing on the museum’s exhibition page and through October 24 in the fall calendar.
