This exhibition begins by inviting the audience to virtually "enter" one of the NPM's classic paintings; audience members may steer a boat and proceed along the ancient Yellow River, where they enjoy sceneries of towering pine trees and falling maple leaves, behold the magnificent Qiao and Hua Mountains from afar, and revel in this mesmerizing landscape experience.

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  Roaming through Fantasy Land VR Installation

  Roaming through Fantasy Land was inspired by Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains, which Yuan dynasty painter Zhao Mengfu painted for his friend Zhou Mi; Zhao painted the landscape of the Jinan Province with the intention of satisfying Zhou's nostalgia for his native land. The immersive virtual reality experience whisks the audience from the real world into a virtual fantasy land, in which one roams through the autumn scenery of Jinan Province depicted by Zhao, proceeding along the contours of the sandbanks, the ancient Yellow River, pine trees, and the warm toned shallow waters. This installation allows the audience to partake in the profound friendship that spurred Zhao to paint this masterpiece for Zhou Mi.

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  Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains

  • Chao Meng-fu (1254-1322), Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)
  • Handscroll, ink and color on paper 28.4 x 93.2 cm

  Chao Meng-fu (style name Zi-ang, sobriquet Songxue daoren), a member of the Song Dynasty imperial clan, went north after the Song fall to serve as an official in the Yuan capital of Dadu. This work, done in 1295 after heading back south from serving in the Jinan Circuit and for his friend Zhou Mi (1232-1298), depicts the scenery of Zhou's ancestral land. The composition of the scroll is succinct; by the shores of marshy slopes and expanses of water are the pointed Hua (Buzhu) Mountain to the right and the rounded Qiao Mountain on the left. Through Chao Meng-fu 's brush and ink as well as coloring, they have become even more animated, forming naturally beautiful scenery pleasing to the eye. Huang Gongwang was able to master a new vitality of brush and ink through this innovative revivalist technique of Chao Meng-fu