China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta

The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall

The Cleveland Museum of Art

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• Date Sunday, September 10, 2023 - Sunday, January 07, 2024

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for its extensive collection of nearly 45,000 objects spanning 6,000 years of art history. Following a recent multi-phase renovation and expansion project, it has become a major international hub for exhibitions, scholarly research,... more

China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta is the first exhibition in the West that focuses on the artistic production and cultural impact of a region located in the coastal area south of the Yangzi River.

Called Jiangnan, this region has throughout large parts of its history been one of the wealthiest, most populous, and fertile lands. For millennia, it has been an area of rich agriculture, extensive trade, and influential artistic production. Art from Jiangnan—home to such great cities as Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing, as well as to hilly picturesque landscapes stretched along rivers and lakes—has defined the image of traditional China for the world.

The exhibition features more than 200 objects from Neolithic times to the 18th century, ranging from jade, silk, prints, and paintings to porcelain, lacquer, and bamboo carvings. Jiangnan’s lush, green scenery inspired artists to conceive it as heaven on earth. Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta explores how this region gained a leading role in China’s artistic production and how it succeeded in setting cultural standards. This international exhibition presents works of art from private and public collections and museums in the United States, Europe, China, and Japan.

Docent-Led Exhibition Tours

Exhibition tours are offered at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, September 19 through December 21; ticket required. Select “Tour 2:30pm” and your ticket quantity when reserving your exhibition ticket(s) to participate in the tour.

Photo: The Thousand Buddha Hall and the Pagoda of the “Cloudy Cliff” Monastery, from Twelve Views of Tiger Hill, Suzhou, after 1490. Shen Zhou (Chinese, 1427–1509). Album leaf; ink on paper or ink and slight color on paper; image: 31.1 x 41 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1964.371.7